Footprints in the Sand
by FreakyPumpkin
Summary: Spitfire meets a homeless girl on the street one day and takes her with him. soon he recognizes that the past of the little girl isn't that different from his own. The last two chapters "Let's roll!" and "Footprints in the Sand" are up!
1. Dirty Streets and Bubbles

Hey, guys, thanks for taking a look!

It's my first english Fanfiction, so please have mercy, because I know that my grammar's not perfect yet, but I'm trying to get better.

The story is Spitfire-centric; the Flame King finds a homeless girl on the street one day and takes her with him. Soon he recognizes that the girl's past isn't tat different from his own as gravity children. Nue's also getting into the story a bit later. ^^ The story tzakes place a few years before Ikki gets introduced to ATs.

**Chapter one – Dirty Streets and Bubbles (Spitfire's POV)**

It was a cold evening when I met her for the first time.

A small girl with big round eyes sitting between the dirt in the streets of this big city. Her eyes were red, a warm red like the one of a camp fire, and they were watching me filled with pure curiousity when I stopped right in front of her and looking down at her. She didn't seem to feel bad or trying to make me taking her with me, just wondering why I had stopped.

Nothing happened, people continued passing by without even recognizing us being there while we were just staring at each other.

"You'd like to come with me?"

I don't know why I offered her to take her with me; I mean, of course, it's absolutely natural – I guess – that you like to take those children living on the street with you to offer them a better life, but she didn't seem to have a bad life or the need of the help of a stranger. It just felt so right to do in this moment.

"Why should I go with you?"

A soft smile appeared on my lips.

"Maybe to take a bath or just to warm up a little; it's pretty cold out here, isn't it?"

She sat there on the ground, legs pulled against her chest and her chin resting on her knees.

"I don't want to", she answered without any muscle moving on her face.

"What? But why?"

Back then she really surprised the hell out of me, but now that I think of it, I'd be surprised if she had reacted in another way.

"I don't like bubbles."

She told me that with such a serious expression on her young face that she just seemed to be so much older than she apparently was. An amused giggle escaped my lips.

"You don't like bubbles?"

"Yeah, I'm scared of them. It's nothing to laugh about, I'm sure you're also scared of something, right?!"

I couldn't help but thinking of her as a pretty cute girl when she made an angry face.

"I'm sorry, but I'm sure I can arrange a bath without any bubbles", I told her with an absolute serious look on my face.

"Oh, really?"

The anger disappeared from her face and those fascinating warm red eyes began to shine, but then she became kinda suspicious.

"And you promise that there won't be any bubbles?"

I felt my heart beating faster. _What a great personality_, I thought with a wide smile on my lips.

"Absolutely no bubbles; I promise."

She stood up and grabbed my hand.

-#-#-#-#-

That's it for the first chapter. It's pretty short, I know, but the second chapter is a bit longer, promised.

So, was it good or bad? I'd also like the readers who didn't like the chapter to maybe write just a short review to let me know why they dislike it.

Thanks for reading! ^^

LG Fye


	2. What's your name?

Hey, everybody ^^

I'm back in Germany, so i can finally upload a new chapter ^^ But first of all I#d like to say THANK YOU to Suntear for the very nice review and i hope you'll still like the story after reading upcoming chapters.

I'm not very good at describing a certain atmosphere so i just hope that you kinda get what kind of atmosphere I wanted to create. (My grammar's still not perfect, but I'm stilll tring hard ttto become better, but if you find some grammar mistakes or something like that which I missed, feel free to tel so that i can correct it! ^^ )

Have fun with the next chapter!

**Chapter two – What's your name? (Normal POV)**

"That's a nice apartment."

"Thanks."

Spitfire placed his jacket behind the door and left his shoes under his now hanging jacket. The little girl had already entered the living room and began to inspect the couch. Her pointing finger careful met with the wine-red fabric. She pulled her finger back and gave the just touched pillow a truly surprised and also impressed look.

"Wow", she whispered, "it's very soft."

"I hope you'll like it here."

The red-haired Flame King entered the living room when the girl spun around and asked pretty excited:

"May I sit here?"

"Öh, s-sure . . . be my guest", he managed to answer, surprised by the girls excitement.

A happy light appeared in her eyes and she placed herself – still careful, as like she was scared of breaking the couch – on the furniture. Spitfire shook his head while smiling as he watched the absolutely satisfied girl who jumped slightly up and down on the soft pillow.

"So . . . would you like to eat something? Or to drink, maybe you're thirsty?!"

The girl stopped jumping and glared at Spitfire with an almost angry look.

"You promised me that I could have a bath without any bubbles."

Spitfire blinked for a moment, but then got the point and nodded in an understanding way.

"Of course . . . I promised it, so you will get your bath. 'kay, you may stay here while I'm going to prepare your bath?!"

He just turned around when a shyly spoken question escaped the girl's lips:

"M-may I also come with you to see how a bath without bubbles has to be prepared? I-I mean, this way, I can do it on my own the next time."

An unguarded look appearing on her face she looked down at her naked feet.

"Yeah, sure, just follow me, I'll show you how it's going to be prepared."

Happily she jumped down from where she was just sitting on the couch and ran over to Spitfire who slowly started walking out of the living room, heading towards his light-coloured bathroom.

_Man, what a funny girl, I mean, it's just filling up some clear warm water._

But he wasn't annoyed by this kinda weird way of acting, not at all. This little girl had already managed to get a place in his heart.

So he showed her his bathroom with the big bathtub and the pictures of shells and fishes all over the walls. He told her how to make the water start flowing and how she'd get warm and cold water.

"It's pretty easy", she mentioned after a while watching Spitfire filling up the bathtub.

"Yeah, actually, it's not that difficult to get it done."

A pure happy smile appeared on her lips.

"So", she began with hesitation, "so, now I could take a bath without bubbles anytime I'd like to?"

"Sure", Spitfire answered and than stood up, "'kay, now I'll let you have your bubble-free bath. Have fun!"

He just wanted to exit the bathroom, to let the girl having her privacy, when a small hand grabbed his shirt. Surprised he turned around with an questioning look on his face.

"Could-could you please stay while I take the bath? It'd be boring and also a bit lonely otherwise."

The little girl bit her lower lip and kept chewing it, while her look flew through the bathroom over the different pictures of fishes and shells on the walls, obviously trying not to face Spitfire until he answered.

"Uhm, I can stay if you'd like me to, but you have to get undressed first, right? So, I'll just go outside for a second or two and when you got into the bathtub, you can call me, 'kay?!"

The red eyes of the little girl suddenly became big with great questionmarks within.

"Why would you have to get out of the room just because I have to undress myself?"

Spitfire looked down on her.

"Ähm, I guess it's just how you're acting if ya wanna be nice. You have to let other people have their privacy, ya know."

"Really? Who told you this?"

"Uhm", the Flame King stopped for a short moment, then continued with a strange tone in his voice, "my-my parents told me this. They taught me how to act and react in other peoples company."

A little light just came up in the eyes of the girl and she went on with an excited look on her face.

"Oh, so you had had parents when you were young, c-could you please tell me what that's like . . . I didn't have any parents so I don't know anything about this family-thing. Can you tell me, please? I'd really like to know."

Spitfire watched that little girl in front of him, going absolutely crazy about the possibility to get known something about the fact what it was like to have a family. His look suddenly became sad and somehow he just wanted to hug that little girl and never let her go again, to let her feel what it was like to have a father or a big brother a least. But this sudden change of his mood was also recognized by the red-haired girl and she became slightly anxious.

"Oh, did-did I say something wrong? I'm very sorry, I did-I didn't want to make you angry."

Her small hand did let go of Spitfires T-shirt and she took a little distance from him, becoming nervous and truly scared. The Flame King recognized her reaction and got his smile back on his face immediately.

"Hey, no need for getting scared. Don't worry, I'm not mad at you, I just . . . just remembered something."

"Something painful?"

The girl closed the distance between them and grabbed Spitfires shirt once again.

"You know, if there's something bothering you, you can talk to me, really, just spit it out."

A sudden laugh escaped Spitfires lips.

"So tough all of a sudden?", he asked with a bit of a mocking tone entering his voice, but the girl didn't let herself get discouraged.

"It's bad if you don't talk about your problems, they'll eat you up from the inside one day", she explained her reaction. "So, y-you shouldn't let that happen it sure is painful, ya know?!"

Spitfires smile became even brighter and he patted the little girl on the head.

"Wise words, young lady, but now just get into the bathtub, I'll go to get some orange-juice for you and then I will be back in a minute."

"Okay."

Half out of the door, Spitfire suddenly stopped and turned around once more.

"By the way, what's your name actually?"

The girl continued getting undressed while she answered; the fabric of her dirty shirt covering her mouth.

"I'm not pretty sure about that, but I guess it's just fine if you call me _Phoenix_."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

That's it for the day ^^

How'd you like it? Good? Bad?

Should I immediately stop writing? ^^ Just tell me, but please no flames, kay?

LG FreakyPumpkin XD


	3. Sad Story

Chapter three – Sad Story (Spitfire's POV)

I stood in my little kitchen filling up the promised orange-juice in a glass, but my thoughts were far away.

_Could you tell me what it's like to have a family?_

That had been a serious asked question. She didn't want to hear some old stories from him about how he celebrated christmas, when he was young or where he spent summer holidays with his parents (Bahamas or camping at a lake). Phoenix really wanted to know what it was like to have a family, how it felt.

"Geez, where the heck did this girl grow up?", I whispered to myself.

I closed the bottle and put it back into the fridge.

_I guess it's just fine if you call me Phoenix!_

Again and again I went through this little conversation, I recalled her reactions and actions in my mind. She didn't seem to be unhappy because of the fact that she didn't have any parents, she was just interested in what it was like to have a family, like someone was interested in what it was like to live in the South when he grew up in the North.

Finally I slightly shook my head and took the glass with the orange coloured liquid inside, then I made my way back to the bathroom.

I stopped in front of the door and knocked firmly.

"May I come in?"

A second passed then a quiet voice answered.

"S-sure, just come in, door's open."

Phoenix sat in the bathtub looking at me with her eyes focused on the glass in my hand.

"You like orange-juice?", I asked friendly.

"Yeah, I do . . . I don't like cherry-juice."

"Why?"

"Too red."

I passed the glass to her and she took a big sip of juice. "I don't like red, ya know . . . of course only as colour for liquid."

A small grin appeared on my lips when I remembered the colour of my couch and her excitement when she had recognized that furniture before.

"'kay, good to know, so I won't by any cherry-juice the next time I'll go to the supermarket."

"Oh, may I come with you then?"

"Sure, just as you like it."

I sat down on the floor of the bathroom right beside the door and watched Phoenix drinking the juice while she sat in the warm water, then I finally took the courage to talk to her about the details from our conversation before I had gone into the kitchen.

"Uhm, Phoenix, may I ask you something?", I asked softly with a warm smile on my face.

She looked up at me while licking some juice frome her upper lip.

"Sure", she answered and I recognized that she gathered more and more self-confidence every minute.

"Okay, so you told me you don't have any parents or family in any way . . ."

Phoenix nodded.

"Then where did you grow up? Have you always been living on the streets?"

"Oh, no no, absolutely not. I've been only living on the streets for the last three years."

Furiously she shook her head which made her already slightly wet red hair flying around, sending some little waterdrops my way.

"So, where did you live before these three years?"

"At _Sleepy Hollow_, I was born there."

A big questionmark appeared over my head. _Sleepy Hollow_? I mean, sure, I knew the movie, but I never heard of a village or at least an orphanage called this way.

"_Sleepy Hollow_? What is this, a house or something like that?"

"Yeah, a veeeeeeeeeeeery big one, but not a normal one I guess." She finished the juice and placed the glass on the floor in front of the bathtub.

"It had dark hallways and many rooms which all looked almost the same; it was pretty easy to get lost in there. I shared a room with a girl called _Hawk _back then_._ Every day there came people in white coats and white masks which covered their mouths and noses."

"What did they do, Phoenix?"

A slight fear crawled up my neck and I had a strange feeling about how this story would go on. It reminded me of my past back in the tower when I hadn't had any idea of the blue sky outside or of the wind which made the birds flying over different continents and the big oceans.

"What did those people with the white masks do to you?"

I tried to pretend just to be normal interested then horribly scared of the end of this story.

"They took us to different rooms and checked our blood pressure, eye reflexes, body condition, ya know, somethig like that . . ."

She didn't seem to notice my true thoughts and so I went on talking to her just as if the story she told was absolutely common to be heard.

"So, you did grew up in a laboratory?"

"Laboratory . . .? Oh, is that something like a hospital?"

Her excitement about that fact almost made me blowing my disguise and just tell her what really happened to her and that those guys in the white coats have only been damn freaks. So, I hestitated a short moment before answering.

"Yeah, it's kinda like a hospital, but in a laboratory . . . you're not only there because of an illness or something like that; in a laboratory you stay the whole time . . ."

_. . . as an object of investigation!_ The bitter thought ran through my brain and pictures started appearing in my mind; pictures I had separated from my memory so long ago. I just shook my head a bit and those pictures vanished again immediately.

"Did you remember something painful again?"

Phoenix looked down at me with true worry in her eyes and her voice was soft like velvet. Of course she saw that move I just did, but . . .

"Why do you think so?"

"Oh, uhm, . . . I remembered that move. Hawk had done it pretty often when we were roommates and those people brought her back to our room in the evening."

"'kay", I managed to say, but then I suddenly recognized something.

"How'd you get out of there?"

I had no clear idea for what Phoenix was made to stay at that _Sleepy Hollow_-thing, but at least I was pretty sure that they hadn't let her go some day making her an homeless orphan this way.

With that question I finally got an emotion appearing on Phoenix' face which fitted the situation much more, in my opinion, than that easy way of talking from before. She leaned back in the bathtub and sank a bit deeper into the warm water, lowering her gaze to her hand. Her fingernails suddenly seemed to become pretty interesting, but at least after a few seconds she began to talk again.

"I don't like the memory of that day", she started with a low voice, "it was the day when I got a chance to escape, sure, but the circumstances . . ."

"What circumstances, Phoenix?", I tried to make her telling me with a soft voice before several horror fantasies got a shape in my mind.

"It's not the way that I didn't like it there, but then one day I've heard them talking about me, ya know . . .", she absolutely ignored my question , "They said bad things that day and I wasn't supposed to hear those things, but it just happened that I did hear them."

It seemed that she had forgotten about my presence at all; she was just talking to herself in a way.

"That day a young man found my standing in one of the hallways; I had gotten lost which had also been the reason why I did hear those bad things about me. The man offered me to take me back to my room. While walking he recognized that I was upset and so he asked me why I'd be so upset, but I didn't want to tell him what had happened . . . he patted my head and embraced me and . . ."

It was obviously that Phoenix didn't want to go on telling her story, but I was pretty sure that this was the only moment the next time I could get known something about her past.

"What happened then, Phoenix?"

I spoke with a soft voice, the kind of voice I could always make Nue telling me what bothered him when he actually didn't want to talk about. My thoughts slightly drifted away to an evening last week when that stubborn little Thunder King –

"Rape."

"WHAT!!!"

My thoughts suddenly were cut off when Phoenix did spit out only one single word which explained everything containing that day. She had been raped that day from that damn bastard and I guess then she just ran away absolutely trrified and finally found herself in the streets of the town.

"I'm sorry!"

As reaction to my sudden outburst she sank even deeper into the water, her eyes closed as much as it was possible and obviously waiting for getting hurt or something like that. I got to my feest as fast as I could and wanted to get nearer to her without the intention of touching her because it could bring painful memories back once more, but then suddenly my mobile phone rang. For a single secomd I was truly surprised where the song came from all of a sudden, but then I got the situation.

"Uhm, I'm sorry . . . "

I recognized Simcas number on the display and remembered that she had told me that she wanted to call me for something important yesterday.

"I have to answer this . . . I'll be back in a minute."

With these words I stumbled out of the bathroom, closed the door behind me and went on the balcony of my appartment.

"Yeah, what is it?"

"Hey, Spitfire; it's me, Nue, I borrowed Simcas phone – is everything okay with you?"

The Thunder king sounded truly worried and also a bit surprised, but my thoughts were still working on what I just got known about that I couldn't change the sound of my voice, which just werea bit shocked and a bit unsure.

"Spit, did you cry?"

I took a deep breath but then I had to smile imagining the surprised face of Nue.

"Oh, shut up; just tell me what's the matter?"

My voice got back a bit of her normal strength and so Nue just seemed to be convinced by that that everything was fine.

Which wasn't the case at all, but I didn't fell like telling him about that on the phone.


	4. Split Milk and stupid, stupid Bottles

**Chapter four: Split milk . . . and stupid, stupid bottles (Phoenix' POV)**

_Now he's gone and I'm alone again and he's mad at me, of course he is!_

_You stupid idiot_, I scolded myself. I shouldn't have bothered him with this story. It has nothing to do with him, but still . . . I wanted to tell him!

He smiled at me – he smiled at me the same way Falk had used to do.

I sank even deeper into the water.

_Falk . . ._

Suddenly my eyes started burning and I bit my lower lip. My throat became tight.

_Damn, Falk . . ._

I felt the first tear running down my cheek when pictures of a boy with brown hair and golden eyes appeared in my mind. The boy's smile was warm and friendly, his voice was soft an-

_SHUT IT!_

I covered my face with both hands and bit my lower lip pretty hard, after a while I tasted blood on my tongue and my lip started hurting. A deep breath widened my lungs.

I opened my eyes again and looked at the door of this beautiful bathroom. I concentrated on the nice feeling which I got from sitting in the warm water.

Then a small smile appeared on my lips. I was safe now; I had no idea why I felt this way, but that man with the red hair which had a bit more orange in it than mine – this guy was nice!

_There's no use crying over split milk!_

I decided to apologize to that nice man for bothering him with that story when he'd get back from where he did go to for answering the phone.

Falk is dead and I can't change a thing about that!

I recognized the silence which had come up and started to watch the little condensing waterdrops which ran down the light-blue walls of the room while passing the faces of different fishes on the pictures. Steam had started to form little clouds flying around. I felt an amused smile growing on my face.

I like that place.

Actually I had hated it when these weird white-masked people had made me taking a bath back at _Sleeping Hollow_, but right now I enjoyed being in his bathtub very much. After my escape on the streets there has always only been cold and dirty water.

As my view observed the bathroom I suddenly felt curiousity growing inside of me. What would be in these little white cupoards which were hanging above the bathtub on the wall.

Shall I open one of them to see what's inside?

The thought ran through my mind and I thought it through a few seconds.

I can close the door when I hear him coming back.

This way I decided to reach out for the wooden door of the cupboard which were the nearest to me. The condensing water made the white colour appearing to shine. I felt the waterdrops when I carefully touched the door with my fingertips. Then I wanted to open it – but the door moved itself. It swung open and I saw a great number of different bottles stuffed inside the small place. The first bottle began to turn down and faster than I could realize the situation the different bottles began to fall down into the bathtub.

Water wildly splashed around me and I couldn't help but following my reflexes. I covered my face with my arms and sat back in the bathtub.

"Ouch . . ." I winced when a bottle unexpectedly hit my head. I bit my lower-lip and tried to cover my head with my hands, too.

After a while the botles stopped falling out of the cupboard, I guessed the cupboard finally was empty, but I kept sitting in the bathtub covering my body with my arms as much as possible while rubbing my head where I had gotten hit. It did still hurt a little and I felt my eyes starting to burn again and a few tears were running down my cheeks.

Stupid cupboard and stupid, stupid bottles . . ., I thought when suddenly the door was opened.

Damn, now there's a second reason for this nice man to be mad at me . . .


	5. Good Bubles?

**Chapter five: Good Bubbles . . .? (Spitfire's POV)**

"Okay, Nue, got it. I'll take care of that matter."

I sighed and went back into the appartment, but suddenly I heard loud noises coming out of the bathroom. I stopped in the middle of the living-room. The noises stopped after a short while, but it was enough to alert me. I headed directly towards the bathroom aas fast as I could. When I opened the door I found Phoenix sitting in the bathtub covering herself with her arms and boh hands and surrounded by the countless shampoo-bottles which I always stuffed into the small cupboard haning on the walls of the bathroom.

I looked up and recognized that the door of one of the cupboards were open. It seemed that it had swung open because I've tried to fill the place inside with to much of my beloved shampoo-bottles. My cheeks got warm and could feel a blush growing on my face.

_Oh my god, just because I am so damn paranoid when it comes to my hair that little girl was attacked out of nowhere by flying shampoo-bottles._

I swallowed hard and carefully asked:

"Uhm, is everything okay?"

I mean, of course it wasn't, but I wanted to know how much she had gotten shocked by getting in contact with one of my weird habits.

"I-I'm . . . I'M VERY SORRY!"

"Huh?"

The comment wasn't pretty intelligent, but this kind of reaction had been the last one I'd had ever expected.

"It wasn't my fault . . . well, not entirely. I swear I had no idea what would be happening. I'm so sorry!"

She didn't change her self-protecting position and I suddenly got the feeling that she was scared of looking at me.

"Did you get hurt?", I asked carefully while I felt guilty for what had happened.

It took a moment till she mentioned with a shy voice:

"I got hit on the head by one of these . . . these things, but it's no heavy injury."

I felt relive growing inside of me. She sounded like a pouting little child who had been scolded for something which han't been his intention to make it happen.

"Phew, what a relieve . . .", I mentioned and walked towards the bathtub. Phoenix winced when she heard him approaching.

"You know", I kneeled down to pick up the bottles which had fallen at the floor beside the bathtub, "I was seriously worried that you would have gotten hurt worse."

I knewly didn't look up at her, but I could hear that she was moving slowly and after a while I felt the look of her red eyes on my back.

She swallowed than spoke up with a shy voice:

"Really?"

This time I raised my view to face her.

"Of course . . . I don't like it if somebody gets hurt on my fault."

"But it wasn't your fault."

A clear tone did enter her voice. It felt amazingly relaxing to listen to her right that moment and I kinda was reminded of the the last tuning I had to go through a few months ago. Ine's voice still was a bit different, but it was the same effect. I took a deep breath and looked at Phoenix for a while. She looked back at me, but then broke off the eye-contact and started collecting the shampoo-bottles which had fallen into the bathtub.

"It was my fault, because I've put too much stuff into the small cupboard. It's a bad habit of mine . . ."

I did put the collected bottles from the floor into the wash-bowl.

"The stuffing or the many bottles?"

I turned around towards Phoenix with a surprised expression on my face. She looked up at me and handed him the collected bottles. They seemed so big compared to her small hands hands and I felt guilty again, but when Phoenix recognized the worried wrinkles on my foehead she smiled broadly.

"Don't worry, eveybody has bad habit . . . nobody's perfect."

A chuckle escaped my lips.

"I guess you're right."

I took the bottles from her and and placed them where I had put the others when suddenly a thought entered my mind.

"Do you wanna wash your hair?"

"Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah . . . ."

She sat back in the bathtub and covered her head. "I don't want to."

"Why?"

"Because shampoo creates foam on my skin and foam consists of thousands of little bubbles and I don't like bubbles."

An angry look appeared in her eyes, but I wouldn't let myself get neither discouraged nor convinced that easily.

"But the foam-bubbles are good bubbles."

She looked at me doubtfully and narrowed her eye-brows. "Good bubbles?"

"Yeah . . ."

"There are no good bubbles."

"Of course there are."

"So . . . why are foam-bubbles good?"

"They can clean your skin. Come on, what did you use on the street to wash yourself?"

"Soap."

I grinned, there was the mask of the pouting child appearing on her face again. But when I answered I looked at her seriously.

"Phoenix, I don't know why you are scared of bubbles" – she was just about to open her mouth to respond – "and you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, but would you let me proof to you that I don't wanna harm you at all?"

A great silence grew between us and I waited patiently till se finally removed her arms from her head, but she didn't move towards me.

"Maybe . . . but I want you to put some of these foam-bubbles on your hand to proof that they're harmless."

"Sure."

I grabbed ome of the shampoo-bottles and kneeled down next to the bathtub. I did put one hand into the warm water and when I took it out of the water again I did put some of the light-blue shampoo on the skin of my hand. I rubbed both hands against each other while foam started growing between them. Phoenix was completely focused on the white foam while she was siting at the other end of the bathtub.

"See?", I raised one hand to let her see the faom more clearly.

"It's getting more the more you are rubbing your hands.", she mentioned matter-of-factly.

Another chuckle escaped my lips.

"Yeah, that's right, but now you can see", I did put my hand back into the water and the foam suddenly got off my hand, "it's harmless and it makes your skin smelling nice."

"I think it smells weird."

"But do you still think that the foam-bubbles are bad bubbles?"

She bit her lower-lip and kept shewing it for a while.

"I guess they're different from the bubbles I know", she finally admitted.

"Do you wanna wash your hair then?"

"If you help me."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

"Why?"

"Well, my hair is quite long." As tp proof that she took a few strands of red hair in both hands and pulled it a bit away from her head to show me their length.

"Well, I guess that'd be possible."

She smiled and moved towards the place where I had kneeled down while I looked for the right kind of shampoo. When I had decided I kneeled down again and dispersed the shampoo carefully on her already wet hair ad slowly started rubbing.

"Is it okay this way?"

"Mhmmm . . ."

Some time passed without anybody saying a word, but then suddenly Phoenix raised her voice again.

"I'm sorry for bothering you with this story before", she whispered.

I stopped rubbing her head for a moment. A sad feeling entered my heart, but I continued rubbing after a while.

"You didn't bother me with that", I answered while focusing on the wall behind the bathtub.

"But you've been angry back then."

"I wasn't angry . . . I was shocked."

"Why were you shocked?"

I swallowed hard before answering with a low voice.

"It's a sad and cruel story."

"I know." Phoenix sighed.

"You do?" I didn't know which feeling was stronger – the one of relieve or the surprise.

"Of course I do, but that doesn't make a difference."

There it was again . . . this clear voice. I took a deep breath.

"I really like you and so I was afraid that you wouldn't like me anymore after listening to that story. It's a terrible one I know, but please . . . please don't be upset about it. It had happened to me and getting angry about it now won't change a single thing about it."

My throat became tight. I felt her wet hair and her small head through the foam under the palms of my hands. A sudden warmth entered my heart and I really had to fight hard against the urge to hug her.

I finally sighed. By looking at that girl everybody would take her for a little child, not being older than eleven, but I had a certain feeling that there was so much more behind these fire-red mirrors of her. She seemed to be wiser than an old woman.

"You're right", I finally managed to answer. "But would it be okay if I'd keep that story in my mind? As a memory of the day when I met you for the first time?"

She raised her foam-covered head and a shy smile laid on her lips.

"I guess, that'd be okay", she whispered happily.

I smiled, too.

"That's great . . . and now let's get rid of that foam", I mentioned grabbing at the shower head.

"Yay."


	6. Your Eyes

**Chapter six: Your Eyes (Spitfire's POV)**

Later that evening we both sat on the couch. Phoenix' body was covered in a light-blue blanket and she had leaned her head against my shoulder. I had given an old t-shirt of mine and a way too big sweatshirt to her, but it would keep her warm till we'd get a chance to buy some clothes for her.

The TV was switched on and we were watching the News.

"May I ask you something?"

"Sure", I answered turning my head a bit sideways to be abe to look at her.

"What is _your_ name?"

She didn't raise her head to look at me, just kept staring at the woman who told us that it'd be raining tomorrow.

"Spitfire, my name's Spitfire."

"That's a very nice name. I like fire, you know."

"Me too."A soft chuckle escaped my lips, but then I suddenly remembered something which kept bothering me since she had grabbed my hand on the street.

"Why'd you come with me? I mean without even knowing my name or something else?"

It took a moment before Phoenix gave me an answer.

"Your eyes", she whispered, "they're the same as mine."

"M-my eyes?"

"Yeah", her voice was very soft and I enjoyed listening to her. "You've endured the same pain as me, right?"

_Pain? The same as she had to endure?_

I swallowed hard because the pictures of the inside of the Tower appeared in my mind for the second time this day.

"How'd you know?"

"Your eyes."

She didn't say more than this and she didn't have to because I understood. The eyes of a person are the mirrors of their soul and someone who could read the eyes of a person could never be lied to.

"But I could have done something bad to you."

"No, you wuldn't have done that."

"Why?"

"Your eyes."

I couldn't help but grinning. I finally knew why I had picked her up from the street.

_Her eyes._

"So . . . my eyes seem to be pretty amazing, hm?"

It was ment as a joke -

"They are amazing, indeed."

But to her it was a very serious matter.

"Have you seen other peeople on the street with eyes like mine?"

I decided to take the matter as serious as she did.

"No, the eyes of the other people walking down this street every day have been cold like ice and ugly, they weren't shining; without any hope or dreams."

"That's sad."

"Yeah, it is."

Her voice became loer and her head sank a bit forward.

"You're tired?"

"Mhm", she mumbled, but she didn't seem like she wanted to stand up. "May I sleep here?"

"Sure."

"Could you stay here with me?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Thanks."


	7. Speechless Thunder King

**Chapter seven: Speechless Thunder King and Toast (Normal POV)**

When Spitfire woke up the next morning he regretted his decision of staying with Pheonix on the couch because only moving an inch already became the most painful thing ever.

He moaned when he finally had managed to get into a sitting position.

The next second he recognized that Phoenix wasn't by his side, but before he could completely panic the red-haired girl entered the living room with a slice of bread in her hand.

"You're up?", she asked with big, round, red eyes.

"I guess so", answered the Flame King while rubbing his still sleepy eyes. "Could you bring me a slice of bread, too?"

Phoenix smiled brightly and nodded

"Sure, just wait a second."

Then she dissappeared in the kitchen once again. Wild rustling got to Spitfire's ears and suddenly he wondered if the reason for him to wake up was Phoenix' quest for food.

When she came back, she handed Spitfire a dry slice of bread. The red-haired man took the offered food and looked at it for a while then he took a bite and patted Phoenix on the head. He stood up, removed his hand from the girl's head and mumbled.

"Come on, let's show you how to use a toaster."

Phoenix looked up at him with pure curiousity in her eyes. Then she followed him back into the kitchen while eating her own bread.

"What's a toaster, Spitfire?"

This morning Phoenix learned how to make a toast. Twenty mintes later she was pretty good at toasting and she and Spitfire sat in the kitchen with about ten toasts for each of them.

"This toaster-thing is an amazing invention", mentioned Phoenix after a while.

"Mhm", the Flame King mumbled between two sips of coffee.

"And you have plenty of food in the fridge. It's also very amazing."

Phoenix was absolutely fascinated by the breakfast which Spitfire had prepared while she had been toasting every slice of bread she had found in the kitchen.

"I'm glad it fits your taste."

"It absolutely does."

Seeing that bright smile and those shining, red eyes, Spitfire felt like his heart were embraced by a pleasant warmth. He took another sip of coffee and went on with watching Phoenix while she tried everything he had placed on the kitchen-table.

As suddenly the bell rang Spitfire almost dropped his coffee. With a racing heart he turned towards the direction of the door of his appartment.

"Shall I go?", Phoenix asked as she recognized Spitfire's shocked face.

"Oh . . . uhm, yeah", he mentioned and the next second Phoenix had already reached the door and opened it.

Meanwhile the Flame King slowly stood up while listening closely to every noise cominng his way from the now opened door.

"Good Morning."

Phoenix' happy voice reached Spitfire's ear.

"Uhm . . . m-morning."

And a second voice which the red-haired man also knew pretty good sounded from the corridor. Spitfire stood up and made his way to the door where he found a very confused Thunder King staring down at Phoenix.

"Hey, Nue, what's up?", he waved at him with a wide smile on his lips.

Nue didn't answer just raised his gaze to stare at Spitfire and kept simply staring for the next few moments.

The Flame King obviously enjoyed the situation because it couldn't experience a speechless and absolutely confused Thunder King every day.

"Spit – what? . . . who? . . . why?", the light-purple-haired guy stuttered while trying to discover the meaning of the situation.

"Oh, may I introduce you to Pheonix, my new roomie."

Than he turned to Phoenix and said:

"Phoenix, this is Nue . . . a very good friend of mine."

Nue looked down at the smiling girl in front of him again then his gaze got back to Spitfire who had an even bigger smile on his face.

A great silence grew between those three . . . it grew bigger . . . and bigger . . . . and bigger . . . . and so on. The Thunder King stood in the entrance like frozen.

"Oh, come on in, Nue, take a seat!"

Spitfire finally broke the silence and dragged his friend into the appartment heading towards the kitchen. Phoenix followed them raising her arms over her head and called out:

"Yay, have a seat! Have toast!"

Nue turned his face towards Spitfire.

"Toast?", he asked clueless; but he only got a nod from his older friend.


	8. First Hint of upcoming Sorrow

**Chapter eight: First Hint of upcoming Sorrow (Normal POV) **

"Why are you here, Nue?"

"I was worried because of your behaviour last evening."

Spitfire sat on the kitchen table, leaning back on his chair across from Nue who had a cup of tea standing in front of him. Hot steam raised from the green liquid in the cup.

A delicate smile grew on the red-haired man's face. His eyes narrowed a bit, focusing his friend intensely.

"You were worried? How cute, my dear friend."

Nue realised what he just had said and a small blush rose on his cheeks, he turned his view away and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Oh, shut up. You did sound like a . . . a – whatever, you didn't sound pretty good, so I decided to visit because I have no school today. That's all, 'kay."

"Sure."

The upcoming silence were broken by Nue's snort.

"Fine, think whatever you want, but I guess we've got other things to discuss . . ."

He took a deep breath and looked back at Spitfire to see if the Flame King had abandoned that damn smile from his face – He hadn't.

"Damn, Spit, just get rid of that freakin' smile – it's absolutely driving me crazy!"

The smile stayed.

Nue's gaze became annoyed.

"You know that it's getting on my nerves when you're acting like that and that's the reason why you're doing it, right?"

The smile grew bigger; the Thunder King rolled his eyes.

"Whatever . . . Am I right that your behaviour of yesterday has something to do with that Toast-Freak?"

The smile dissappeared within an instant.

"Come on, Nue, don't be rude . . . her name is Phoenix and she just haven't seen a toaster before – that's all."

A serious expression lit up in Spitfire's eyes which made the light-hearted tone of his voice seem to be played. Nue's face hardened.

Meanwhile Phoenix did inspect the balcony and the TV in the living-room so the two Kings were sure that she couldn't hear anything of their conversation. The door of the kitchen was closed too.

"Since when is she living with you."

"Yesterday afternoon."

"Really?"

"Something wrong with that?"

Spitfire's voice became rough and he almost glared at the surprised Thunder King, but than a knowing smile appeared on Nue's lips and his gaze also changed.

"So you already taking her as a part of your team?"

The Flame King had always been a bit overprotective everytime it came down to his teammates and the same way he did act now when it was about that girl he just met the day before.

"She has nothing to do with with Genesis, neither the Tropheaum or something else."

"You don't want her to, right?"

Now Spitfire had to defend himself against Nue's reproachful look.

"Come on, Spitfire, you don't really think you can keep her out of the world of ATs for long."

"Maybe, she isn't even interested in the whole AT-stuff."

The Thunder King grinned widely.

"Hope dies last, my friend."

"Shut up."

In the living-room Phoenix finally had discovered how to switch on the TV. Now she was sitting infront of it and zapped through the several channels until sje suddenly stopped because something caught her interest.

"The new long awaited model of ATs is fiinally released and can be found in every AT-shop. So, everybody who loves wall-riding, go and get the -"

Phoenix didn't listen to the voice of the young woman. She just observed the pictures of teenagers jumping through the air and moving on pretty fast over the rooftops of the highest builings.

"Only the sky as their limit-"

Light sadness entered the look of her eyes. "Sky . . .", she whispered while carefully touching the screen.

All of a sudden Phoenix remembered the weird shoes she had noticed when she hasd first entered the apartment. Her view flew towards the passage which lead to the hallway. So Spitfire did use these ATs. Hope raised in Phoenix' chest.

Was it possible that Spitfire maybe could bring her back to the sky where she had been flying such a long time ago before the men with the white jackets had been there and before they had captured her. Her throat became tight and she felt how her eyes started burning.

Please, please show me a way back to the sky . . . help me to get rid of these damn, heavy chains which are pinning my wings on the ground.

She knew tha she had decided not to bother Spitfire with any story of her past anymore, but maybe . . . maybe these ATs changed the situation.

Phoenix looked back at the TV, but now there was a woman on he screen who had red lips and weird blue colour above her eyes. (She doesn't know pretty much about make up yet. ^^) She didn't like that woman, she made a grimace and changed the channel.

I'll ask him, after that Nue-guy is gone.

"So, you don't have the intention of teaching her riding ATs?"

"Not really, I mean . . . she's still very young."

Nue raised an eyebrow and Spitfire sighed.

"'Kay, I got it, bad argument. Fine, I just decided that I'll teach her how to use ATs if she tells that she wants to learn it."

"Do whatever you want to, but I want to remind you of your duties as a king, kay. Don't get into that stuff too much."

"Getting into WHAT too much?"

"You know, that helping-stuff. Yeah, she's an orphan and she is homele- sorry, she was homeless till yesterday and I hardly believe that you can keep her out of the AT-world for long, but by taking her into this world, you are also making her a target for your enemies-"

"Oh, shut up, Nue, you know that you are talking bullshit, do you?"

"I'm not talking bullshit, I just wanna remind you of the fact that the japanese world of ATs on the side of one of the eight kings isn't a playground for little kids."

"And you're the one to talk-"

"My case is different because I haven't been the favorite-student of a king."

Spitfire went silent, but ept staring at the Thunder King. He was angry, he was angry at himself because he had to admit that Nue wasn't talking bullshit at all, but still . . . still . . .

"Okay, I'll think that through . . . but I won't toss her back into the streets. Got that?"

Nue raised his hands in a defensive gesture. "Sure."

"But could you do me a favour?"

"Maybe . . ."

The Thunder King had been about to stand up, but then suddenly stopped moving and looked at the Flame King in surprise.

"Could you research something for me?"

"I guess that'll be possible."

"I'd like to know a bit more about a house or organisation called 'Sleepy Hollow'."

"_Sleepy Hollow_? That's a movie . . ."

Spitfire shook his head.

"No, Nue, it's much more than a movie . . . could please do a research on that name?"

Th Thunder King hesitated a little moment before answering.

"'Kay, I'll see what I can get to know about it; but wait you've mentined it yesterday evening, too, does it have something to do with that . . . girl?"

The red-haired man's look became dark again and he didn't answer. Nue shrugged and finally stood up completely. He turned around and left the kitchen, followed by Spitfire.

Phoenix raised her view when the two men left the kitchen and entered the living-room.

"You are going?", she asked Nue who just nodded and then walked on towards the door. Spitfire stayed in the living-room with a serious expression on his face leaned against the wall.

When Nue almost had reached the door, Phoenix suddenly jumped on her feet and followed the Thunder King. She grabbed his dark-blue sweatshirt and looked up at Nue a that look in her eyes which doesn't seem to fit her childish appearance at all.

"What's up?"

Phoenix answered with a calm, serious voice; more like the one of a teacher than a little, young, homeless girl.

"Liking toast very much doesn't make someone automatically a freak, you know?"


	9. Author's Note

**Author's note**

Hey there ^^

I'm back on the road!

Yeah, I had a little writer's block, but now I'm into that story again ^^

Maybe some of you have already recognized that "First Hint of upcoming Sorrow" is the eightth chapter now. The reason for this is pretty simple:

I have redone the fourth chapter "Split Milk" and I have added the new fifth chapter "Good Bubbles . . . ?".

I'm very sorry, that the story didn't move on any further, but I am already working on the next chapter with the title "Shopping-Maniac" where Simca will make her first appearance. ^^

Furthermore I wanna thank all the loyal readers who had been waitin for so long, please accept my apology and keep on reading because you are the ones I'm writing for!

*bows down deeply* u.u

angelrider13: I'm so sorry for bothering you!

Well, have fun! XD

Bye FreakyPumpkin


	10. ShoppingManiac

Hey, everyone ^^

As promised I've finished the new chapter as soon as possible and i hope you'll like it. I just wanna give the short warning that I don't like Simca pretty much; please don't be mad me for making her appear the way I did.

HAVE FUN!

**Chapter nine: Shopping-Maniac (Normal POV)**

"Have you been eavesdropping?"

Nue had closed the door behind him a few moments ago and had left Phoenix and Spitfire in the corridor. Phoenix had been looking at the door and didn't turn her head to look at Spitfire for answering his question. Compunctious she began to chew her lower lip while grabbing her hands behind her back.

"I-I wasn't eavesdropping, Spitfire", she finally managed to say, but still didn't look at the read-haired man because she was scared of the anger in is eyes which she expected - judging from the tone in his voice.

"I mean, I did hear you – but I wasn't eavesdropping! You gotta believe me!"

She finally raised her gaze from the closed door to his face. Spitfire looked down at her with a strict expression and he had narrowed his eyebrows, but then suddenly the anger disappeared and got exchanged by honest surprise.

"Wait, you mean you did hear us and you understood what we were saying?"

"Uhm . . . m-most of it, I guess."

Phoenix had no idea how to deal with the current situation. She had expected some kind of punishment like it always had been back at _Sleepy Hollow_, but . . . but that man – that man seemed to be positively surprised by the fact that Phoenix had heard most of the conversation what she had been obviously not supposed to do.

"That's amazing, do you know that?"

Spitfire felt the excitement growing up inside of him. That little girl's ears were amazing.

"I-it is?" The girl was absolutely confused.

"Yeah, it is."

"Uhm . . . kay."

The room became silent. Spitfire smiled while looking down at the little girl and Phoenix doubtfully looked up at the red-haired man. She wasn't sure how to handle the glimming in his orange-coloured eyes.

After a while Spitfire cleared his throat and mentioned.

"But anyway, we have to get some clothes for you because you can't stay dressed like this."

He looked determined at the old sweatshirt which Phoenix was wearing since the day before, combined with a pair of boxer-shorts.

"Where do we get the clothes?", the girl asked naively while she felt excitement growing up inside of her. When she had been living on the street she had always wondered where the people passing her had gotten these nice clothes; the t-shirts with the funny pictures on them or these scary high shoes. (High-Heels)

"Well, I'll see if I have some short trousers of mine for you then we can go shopping."

With these words Spitfire headed towards another room and Phoenix stayed in the living-room.

_Shopping . . .,_ she grinned, _sounds funny!_

Only a short moment later Spitfire returned with the promised piece of clothing.

"Here, Phoenix, put these trousers on – oh, and I've brought you a pair of socks, too. It's still cold outside and I don't want you to catch a cold."

He smiled and Phoenix took both pieces from him. She put it on and with an additional belt the trousers were held in place perfectly. Spitfire put on his favorite jacket with fure at the hood.

"Let's hit the road!"

The weather outside was very nice. It was still cold, but the sun did shine and warmed Phoenix face. Spitfire carried her on his shoulders through the different streets because she still had no shoes. Her feet were simply covered by Spitfire's old pair of socks.

But it didn't matter to her that the clothes were too big or that they were old. She liked them because Spitfire had given them to her and they warmed her.

There streets were already filled with a great number of different people and the red-haired girl really enjoyed being above all of them, above the whole daily stress of the working people . . . and one step nearer to the light-blue sky.

She raised her gaze and strechted out one hand. It seemed to be almost possible reaching the fading clouds above her head. Spitfire recognized the movement due to looking at the reflection of them in the window of a random shop which they passed.

A sad smile grew on his lips. _Poor girl . . ._, he thought while remembering Nue's words about keeping Phoenix out of the world of ATs.

It seems like she is already a part of the sky.

Phoenix put her arm back and did let her hand rest on Spitfire's head.

"The weather is nice today", she whispered and placed her chin on the red hair of the Flame King, too.

"You're right."

It wasn't an honest discussion. Spitfire felt the emotions boiling beneath the surface, but it was too early the let them break through.

They reached the shop around two o'clock in the afternoon. Phoenix watched the electric sliding door with fascination and Spitfire did let her down to the ground. Carefully the little girl approached towards the door and shrieked when it suddenly opened.

She turned around scared and hid behind Spitfire.

"How did it know that I was coming?", she asked with pure confusion which made the Flame King laugh.

"There is a sensor above the door which react to your presence when you enter a defined place infront of the door." (I've got no idea if I'm right with this kind of explanation O.o if someone knows better, please tell me ^^)

Phoenix didn't seem to be convinced by that, so she followed Spitfire while grabbing his jacket when he walked forward. The door automatically opened and let the two enter the building.

Inside Phoenix was confronted with an amazingly big room. There hanging clothes everywhere and signs had written stuff like 'dresses', 'trousers', 'pullovers' written on them.

"Oh my god."

Spitfire turned around and grinned at the astonished girl behind him.

"Come on, I'll carry you on my shoulders again . . . this way you'll be able to see more clearly."

Phoenix couldn't do anything else than simply nodding.

"Is this dimension a normal one for a shop for clothes, Spitfire?"

They were heading towards a hat stand with pullovers. There were four of them with pullovers in so many different colours and shapes that Phoenix had stopped counting them after the fifteenth colour. She had preferred to focus on the place.

"Uhm, actually it's a small one with it's seize."

"Really?"

He could almost see the shocked expression of the girl in his mind.

"But let's focus on finding some clothes for you, kay?"

"Well, okay . . . if I can't find any clothes at this shop, I guess that'd be a good reason for desperation", Phoenix mentioned completely serious and crossed her arms in front of her chest. Spitfire couldn't help but laugh.

"Let's get moving then", he mentioned still laughing.

The red-haired girl on his shoulders nodded and suddenly felt like the captain of a giant ship.

When they had reached the first hat stand with pullovers Siptfire mentioned:

"Hey, I guess I better let you down. That way you can take a closer look at the clothes."

He reached out for the girl who was less heavier than he had expected and did put her down on her feet again. She stepped closer to the different pullovers and carefully reached out for one of them.

"The fabric is very soft", she mumbled. "Falk would have liked it."

"Hm?"

Spitfire had turned to the opposite direction to take a closer look on a few t-shirts.

"What were you saying?", he asked half-way turned around.

"It's nothing", Phoenix replied with a fake smile on her face.

The Flame King noticed that detail, but it wasn't the time to force her talking about the feelings beneath the surface.

"Well, what color would you like?"

"I've never had the possibility to choose my clothes based on color."

Phoenix observed a dark-green pullover.

"I think blue would look good on you, in contrast to your hair and eyes."

Spitfire hold a ultramarine-colored hoodie in his hands, but the red-haired girl didn't seem to like it pretty much.

"Blue is such a cold and isolated color."

Spitfire raised an eyebrow. "'kay . . ."

He did put the hoodie back and looked through the different pullovers again while Phoenix did the same on another hat stand.

_Color . . . which color should I choose? A color which he would have liked!_ Her face became serious. _I'll choose a colour which makes me easy to recognize from the sky._

"_Come on, Phoenix, I'll never loose sight of you because of your shining, red hair."_

The memory pierced right through her heart. She bit her lower-lip; it actually did hurt from biting it so often in the last time.

_Damn,_ she scolded herself, _where the heck are these memories coming from? I've been fine with living on the streets without him for one and a half year and I didn't feel like breaking down and cry every single moment after I had overcome the first shock. _

Phoenix took a deep breath.

Calm down!

"Spitfire! Oh my, what a coincidence to meet you here!"

A girl had suddenly appeared next to the Flame King when Phoenix turned around to see who had ripped her out of her thoughts.

The first thought which entered the girl's mind after seeing the other girl was:

Too pink!

Phoenix guessed that she was about five years older than herself.

Pink hair surrounded a cute face and grey eyes were focused on Spitfire. That pink girl's figure was very well-shaped and her clothes were rather short. Phoenix didn't know why, but she had a feeling that she would never learn how to like that girl.

"I guess you're here to find some clothes for that poor, little thing?"

I'm not poor . . . kay, economically seen I am, but still – and I'm not a little th- okay, I am way shorter than her. This sucks.

Spitfire nodded and answered:

"Yeah, that's right, Simca . . . oh, and her name is Phoenix."

Spitfire turned his face towards the younger girl and mentioned:

"Phoenix, this is Simca."

Phoenix managed to nod.

"Oh, she really is a cutey."

"Well,I guess you've heard about her from Nue?"

Simca smiled broadly.

"Sure I did, but I wouldn't have expected her to be such a shopping-maniac to actually drag you into this shop. You've never had a thing for clothes right?"

"Well . . ."

Spitfire scratched the back of his head.

"Oh, but don't worry because now I am here and I can help you out if you – ah, you know what? Just wait a moment . . .I'll go and get some clothes which will fit that little shopping-maniac perfectly."

With these words she already headed somewhere else and Phoenix had to admit that she wouldn't care if Simca would never come back. She stepped next to Spitfire and pulled one of the sleeves of his jackets which made him looking down at her.

"What's up?"

"Spitfire . . . I don't like that nickname."

-#-#-#-#-#-

That's it for the day . . . and once again i have to apologize for making you wait so long! u.u

I really hope you liked that chapter because it was great fun for me to write it ^^

By the way . . . you can also tell me if you didn't like something about it (but no flames, please) because I'm still learning. ^^

PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW! ^O^v

Bye FreakyPumpkin


	11. Legend

Hey everybody ^^

Sry for making you wait again, but I hope you will read and enjoy the new chapter. But first of all I wanted to thank all reviewers: You have to know that I'm absolutely happy about every single review I recieve for this story and I'm even happier about the fact that you like Phoenix that much ^^

Kaori Summers: I will definitely keep on writing this story X3 (There are so any ideas left that I think my head would explode if I'd stop writing ^^)

XBloodyVeilX: Well, you may hug Phoenix mentally. (Oh, and thanks for the commendation for my english ^/^)

angelrider13: How about forming a Phoenix-Fanclub? ^^ (I love her, too)

IMPORTANT: I decided to dedicate this chapter to *drum roll* angelrider13 for leaving the most reviews by now! ^^ I hope you like the chapter!

Chapter ten: Legend

Coincidence? Meeting Simca had never been a coincidence and it would definitely never become a simple thing like that. But Spitfire still had no idea why Simca decided to show up this soon. Maybe it was simply curiosity . . . actually he really hoped so.

"Do you wanna bring her to the next meeting?", the pink-haired girl asked while they were sitting in a café. They had bought a couple of clothes for Phoenix and now the red-haired girl was at the bathroom to change into her new clothes. So Simca took the chance to speak with Spitfire about Phoenix without being eavesdropped by said girl. The Flame King turned his head towards Simca.

"What do you mean?", he asked carefully whith a sceptical voice. The pink-haired teen shrugged and mentioned: "Well, shouldn't she be formally introduced to the team?"

Spitfire's expression got darker. "Why should that be necessary?"

"Oh, you wanna train her all by yourself? You're mean, Spitfire", Simca laughed, but the Flame King just gritted his teeth. "Haven't Nue told you that I'm not sure yet if I wanna let her get involved with Genesis and the Trophaeum?" (Is the spelling right? o.O)

"Sure." Simcas smile became sneaky she continued with a low voice. "There's no discussion concerning Genesis or the Trophaeum of which I am not aware, but what made you think that I'd let her off te hook so easily?"

Spitfire bristled with anger. "She is none of you little experiments, got that?"

Simca sighed and leaned back in her seat. "Well, the only way to prevent her from becoming one of my little experiments – as you said – is, I guess to train her by yourself."

The Flame King took a deep breath. "Why are you so damn interested in her becoming a rider?", he asked as he had calmed down a little. She shrugged again.

"I just have that feeling that there's something about her which isn't normal. Have you recognized the tattoo on her back?"

Surprise rose in the red-haired man's eyes. "Tattoo?", he asked puzzled which made Simca's smile to grow even wider. "So, you haven't noticed it yet? I've seen it while she was trying on some t-shirts back at the shop."

"What kind of tattoo?"

"A bird", the pink-haired teen stated matter-of-factly. "With outstrechted wings."

"A bird? But why-"

"It's a phoenix."

Spitfire and Simca almost collapsed because of a heart-attack as suddenly Phoenix' voice sounded from behind them. They turned around and saw the content of their discussion standing there with a slightly offended look on it's face. "Do you know that it's quite impolite to talk about people behind their back?"

She was wearing a bright-red sweater with the line 'Don't play with fire!' on it and a pair of jeans. Spitfire was the first one who picked up courage and mentioned:

"I'm very sorry about that, Phoenix, but Simca was the one who couldn't settle her curiosity."

The said teen glared at Spitfire for a moment, but had to face Phoenix' questioning look then.

"I'm sorry", she finally said while Phoenix took place at their table.

"So, what's with all this talking about Genesis and Trophaeum", the red-haired girl asked, "I'm finally sick of being ignored by Spitfire's friends. If you wanna know something about me, just talk to me otherwise I would have to think that you're scared of me."

She had hit a sensitive point which made Simca frown. This girl seemed to have quite a short temper and maybe a bit too much self-confidence, but she couldn't do anything about it now. Simca gave in and sighed.

"'kay, I would like to know what is up with the tattoo on your back", she said calmly while trying to put a friendly smile on her lips. Phoenix looked at her and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "No comment."

Simca almost crushed her cup of coffee. _This insolent brat!_

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Do you think I overdid it?"

Phoenix sat on the red couch watching TV while Spitfire was standing in the kitchen and preparing dinner. "I mean, do you think that Simca hates me now?"

The Flame King softly sighed as he heard Phoenix' worried voice from the living-room. He took the salmon out of the sink and dried his hands before he walked into the living-room.

"I wouldn't worry about this so much. Simca is not the kind of person who hates people easily", he said, but was cut off by Phoenix who grabbed the remote control a bit harder.

"Yeah, she is more of the kind of person who terrorises the people she doesn't like."

The Flame King couldn't help but laugh.

"Why are you laughing? Are you making fun of me?" Phoenix pouted, but Spitfire shook his head. "Nah, I'd never make fun of you.", he grinned, "I was just amused by the fact that you know Simca that well already after meeting her only once."

"Oh", the red-haired girl went on after a short break. "Well, most of the people I've met so far are pretty easy to read, ya know. Just like an open book."

"Very wise, young lady."

Phoenix smiled. "So, what are you making for dinner?", she asked excited.

"You're quite curious . . . you know, that curiosity killed the cat."

"I don't like cats, Spitfire. They catch birds."

Spitfire grinned and recognized that suddenly she was that little girl again, looking up at him with this glance of childish stubbornness in her eyes, which the Flame King had already kinda fallen for. He sighed as he turned around and walked back into the kitchen. The situation would be so much easier if that childish mask would be Phoenix' real face. She wouldn't have caught Simca's interest and maybe even Nue wouldn't be that concerned. Phoenix would be just a normal child who would take riding ATs as a nice hobby . . . nothing more. But Spitfire knew that this wasn't the case because that little girl has already seen and experienced so much more of the ugly face of this world than it could be healthy at her age.

Spitfire stopped cutting the salmon for a second. "I don't even know how old she is", he mumbled thoughtful to himself.

-.-.-.-.-.-.- Phoenix' POV -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

I don't like that Simca-girl. Her eyes are bothering me, they are grew and I can't read them clearly by now. She is a strange person who seems to be enjoying fooling around. But fooling around isn't good because it could cost your life. I looked at the TV-screen without really noticing what I was watching.

_I don't understand her . . . that's bad. I don't like it. _

My thoughts were running crazy in my mind. Again and again the same ones were rushing through and I wasn't able to calm down. I didn't like that feeling.

"What is bothering you?"

I was looked up at Spitfire who brought two plates into the living-room and placed them on the little table between the TV and the couch. "Nothing", I whispered, but I knew that he wouldn't believe me. So, I sighed after a short moment and looked down at my fingernails.

"Can ATs make you fly?"

-.-.-.-.-.-.- Spitfire's POV -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

She whispered and I could hear that hopeful tone in her voice which felt like piercing right through my heart. I could have told her that it's the best feeling ever, that ATs can give you wings, but it felt wrong and it seemed to be the worst lie I could ever tell her. I placed the plates on the table and took place across from her.

"ATs are rollerblades with little, forceful motors inside of the wheels. You can move very fast with them and jump very high which feels a lot like flying."

"Did you ever really fly?"

It was a serious question and not meant to mock me. She looked at me with a sad look in her red eyes. Why the heck did it feel so wrong to tell her about ATs?

"No", I finally answered and took a bit of the salmon which I had prepared with rice for dinner. "I did never really flew."

-.-.-.-.-.-.- Phoenix' POV -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"That's sad." A smile appeared on my lips, it was a fake one and it did hurt the longer I kept that fake expression on my face. The rice tasted good and the salmon wasn't dry. He really was a good cook. After a few bites I felt myself relaxing. I enjoyed the calming atmosphere which calmed down my mind as well. The fake smile got exchanged by an honest one and as I had almost finished the meal I felt like telling Spitfire a part of my story.

"Do you know that there is a legend about the phoenix, the fire-bird?"

"Really?"

-.-.-.-.-.-.- Spitfire's POV -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Yeah, do you wanna hear it?"

"Sure." I felt relieved as I saw the fake smile disappearing from her face and took the last bite of my piece of fish. Phoenix had almost finished the meal as well, but she placed the chopsticks next to her plate and started talking:

"Well, it is said that once the sky has been ruled by four birds: the eagle, the falcon, the goshawk and the phoenix. The feathers of the Phoenix hadn't been on fire back then, he was a bird with simply beautiful red feathers. But the sky fell for him which made the sun, the wife of the sky, jealous of that certain bird. One day she called out to him and asked him to come near her because she wanted to tell him something. The phoenix flew higher and as he got nearer to the sun, she set his feathers on fire. The phoenix screamed in pain and fell down from the sky, who was forced to helplessly watch the beloved bird falling towards the earth. But the people who were living on the earth looked up as they heard the phoenix screaming. They were caught by this never seen before beauty of the burning feathers and laid out a trap to cath the phoenix who got caught in their net. The falcon noticed what was happening and hurried to help his friend, but was also caught by the people. They didn't understand the pain of the phoenix and put him into a cage for everybody to be seen. As time went by the phoenix turned into a human-form. This way he didn't have to suffer the pain of the burning feathers; he didn't scrream anymore and so the falcon, who had been anle to free himself, couldn't hear him anymore. First he thought his dear friend was dead, but he couldn't believe that and swore to himself that he would never give up searching till he had found the phoenix."

I softly smiled as Phoenix had finished. "What a nice story."

She smiled back at me, but then looked down at her plate again.

"And is the falcon still searching?"

I felt an unknown tension crawling up my spine, but suddenly Phoenix began to smile and a glint of deep sadness appeared in her eyes.

"Maybe . . ."

-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-

That's it for the nw chapter ^^

Hope you liked it (especially angelrider13 XD) and please leave some reviews! X3

THANKS FOR READING!

By FreakyPumpkin


	12. New Haircut and Clouds

Hey everyone ^^

I'm back on the road! Man, I really had a tough time in school the past few weeks, so, I'm very sorry for making you wait that long. X3 I hope you'll like the new chapter and if you wanna support my ego . . . leave a review XD

Kaori Summers: Well, I may say that much: The falcon will definitely be an important character in this story ^^ and I hope you'll like the next meeting between Phoenix and Simca in this chapter.

**Chapter eleven: New Haircut and Clouds**

It had been two weeks since the meeting with Simca. Phoenix was staying at Spitfire's apartment when the Flame King went to work and started doing some research on those things called Air-Trecks. Spitfire had given her the allowance to use his old laptop for this. He also had started to teach Phoenix the basics of cooking; he took her to the supermarket and showed her the different ingredients, explained her what she could use the different kinds of vegetables for and how to use the stove. The girl learned surprisingly fast and soon became a great fan of cooking her own meals. The first time Spitfire had taken her to a restaurant Phoenix was still excited about this experience two days later, but she kept insisting that Spitfire was the best cook on earth after all.

The day when Spitfire returned from work and suggested her to get a new haircut she had prepared miso-ramen for dinner and was eating onigiri while searching the net.

"Haircut?", she asked puzzled. "Why would I need a new haircut? My hair is just fine."

The Flame King smiled as he took a place next to the red-haired girl.

"Sure, there's nothing wrong about your hair, but don't you think that it's a bit too long?"

Suddenly Phoenix' eyes were filled with pure shock and she looked up at Spitfire obviously scared. "I don't want them to be cut short", she almost screamed at him fearfully while grabbing the longer dark-red strands of her hair. Spitfire grinned and parted her bangs with one finger which were already long enough to cover Phoenix's eyes. "I would never cut your beautiful hair too short. I just thought about cutting them one or two centimeters shorter because they're falling in your eyes that much. You were wearing a bandeau yesterday to be able to see the screen of the laptop clearly, weren't you?"

Phoenix seemed to be very relieved and gave it a short thought. "Would you do the haircut?", she asked hesitant.

"Sure I would."

"Well, I guess I could give it a shot . . . but you have to promise me that you'll be the one to cut them . . . and that you don't cut them too short."

Spitfire placed his right hand upon his heart and hold the other one up in the air at the height of his shoulder. "I solemnly swear."

"Nice." Phoenix smiled broadly and hugged the older man. "When will you cut my hair?"

"How about tomorrow? My schedule shouldn't be that full for that day . . .", he placed one hand on the top of Phoenix head and continued with a whispering voice, "and how about stopping by the supermarket and getting some of those cookies you like that much?"

Spitfire couldn't see her face, but he could hear her smile as she answered:

"That would be nice. They ran empty yesterday."

The next day was cold, but the sky was blue, the sun was shining and no cloud could be seen. Phoenix was wearing the red 'Don't play with fire' – sweater and a pair of dark-blue jeans. Spitfire had lended her an orange-red-striped muffler which covered the lower half of her face.

"Don't you think it's a bit strange that there are no clouds in he sky?", Phoenix suddenly asked while they were waiting next to a traffic light to cross the street. "You think so?", Spitfire asked back and looked at the light-blue firmament. Then he lowered his gaze and faced Phoenix who was now focusing him. "Sure . . . I mean, aren't the clouds a part of the sky – same as the birds and the wind?"

The Flame King looked thoughtfully over at the other side of the street before he answered:

"Ich guess, you're right, but the sky is much greater than the small part we're able to see from here . . . maybe the clouds can be seen from another point of the earth." Phoenix looked up at the sky again and remained silent. Spitfire sighed, he could have told her something about thousands of little waterdrops condensating in the great hights or about atmosphere and why the sky was so shining light-blue today, but he had the feeling that she wasn't talking about the clouds at all – it felt more like she was looking for something and was scared to loose what had been there for so many years.

The traffic-light turned green and Spitfire touched Phoenix' head to get her attention because she seemed to be dazing off a little while staring at the sky. "Come on, little girl."

She blinked a few times in surprise, but then recognized the green traffic-light, grabbed Spitfire's hand and followed him across the street.

"I like clouds, you know", she mentioned when they had reached the other side's pavement.

"Why?"

"They're fluffy."

"I like clouds too, my dear." Phoenix stopped in surprise as she recognized that a certain pink-haired girl had appeared next to her. She grabbed Spitfire's hand a little harder and her eyes were filled with obvious dislike. "Hey, Simca-", the Flame King began, but was cut off by a grumpy Phoenix. "What do you want, Pinky?"

Simcas smile froze instantly and faded like a cockroach when the light was switched on. "It's always nice to meet you, little shopping-maniac." Spitfire swallowed because he could almost grab the tension between those two girls; he decided to try keeping the situation from exploding because he was quite sure that if he wouldn't do something those two would succeed in staring each other to death. So, he cleared his throat which made Simca look at him while Phoenix kept closely observing every movement of _Pinky_. Actually, she was kinda proud of that nickname she had found for the other female teen because she was quite sure that Simca didn't know this funny series about two mice tryin g to take over the world.

"Well, is there some business you have to discuss?", Spitfire asked while Phoenix thought about the possibilty to take _Brain_ as a nickname for that Nue-guy – as revenge for calling her Toast-Freak.

Simca's smile got back on her face and she took a folded sheet of paper out of the pocket of her rose-colored jacket. "I haven't really something to discuss with you. I just want to give you a little love-letter . . . you might as well call it an invitation for that lovely young lady."

Spitfire had a bad feeling when he grabbed the folded letter and watched Simca rolling away on her ATs, humming a song he didn't know.

"I don't like her."

"I would have never expected that", Spitfire mentioned ironically, but then opened the letter and found that bad feeling being proved right. It was an invitation . . . an invitation for Phoenix to next meeting of Genesis next week. "What's written in there?" Phoenix tried to look at the sheet of paper, but the Flame kIng was holding it too high.

"It's an invitation."

"An invitation? For what?"

"A meeting."

"What kind of meeting?"

Phoenix found it rather annoying to get the whole information just only bit by bit. So she reached out for the paper and took it from Spitfire who didn't try to prevent her from reading it. "What's Genesis?", the girl asked after a while. Spitfire sighed and started walking again towards the salon where he was working. "Genesis is a team of stormriders; it consists of a great number of smaller teams and Simca is the leader of Genesis."

"Oh, now I remember reading something about that Genesis when I was surfing through the internet lately. Is it true that it's the greates stormrider-team in the world?"

With a little smile on his lips Spitfire looked down at Phoenix. "Well, I don't know if you may say the greates one in the world, but I'm pretty sure that you can't find a bigger one in Japan."

"But Japan is just a small island . . ."

"Compared to what?"

"Russia?"

Spitfire chuckled. "I guess your right. But more importantly is, do you wanna go to this meeting?"

"Well, I've been invited, haven't I?"

"Sure, but you don't have to go if you don't want."

"I have no idea what it's like so it's be kinda stupid not to go."

"So, you're not scared of it?" The Flame King raised one eyebrow as they entered the salon.

"Of course not!", revolted Phoenix and crossed her arms in front of her chest. She looked up at Spitfire angrily. "I'm not scared of the team of this damn sugary princess."

"Sugary?"

"She wears much pink stuff . . . and looks like huge, mean candy."

Spitfire shook his head slightly and greeted the young lady standing behind the cash box. "Good morning, Mina", he said.

"Morning", Mina answered then recognized Phoenix who was closely observing her new surrounding. "Who's that, Spitfire? Don't tell you got a daughter."

"Nah, she's not my daughter . . . just living with me for the time being. She, uhm . . .is the daughter of one of my cousins."

"Oh, poor girl, why did her parents leave her alone – with you, I mean?"

"Oh, uhm, they're working . . . oversea."

Mina raised her perfectly trimmed eyebrows in comprehension then she smiled and asked:

"Shall I give her something to play with?"

"That's nice of you, Mina, but I brought her here to get her a new haircut . . . I just have to ask you for not giving me any extra customers today."

"Ah, sure thing, Spitfire."

The Flame King thanked her and went back to Phoenix who were standing in front of a mirror looking closely at her own reflection. "Everything okay?", he asked.

Phoenix nodded and said:

"I'm fine, but it's kind scary in here . . . with all those mirrors."

"They can't harm you."

"Are you sure?" Phoenix eyed him sceptically, but she followed him to the rear of the salon where she took a place next to Spitfire on a orange-colored couch.

"Do you see that seat over there?", he asked while pointing at a certain chair in front of a mirror. "I'm not blind, Spitfire . . . sure I see that seat." The Flame King smiled and continued explaining:"Well, that's the place where I cut the hair of all my customers and when there's no customer you'll be the one taking place on that seat, kay?"

"Ah, I see." Phoenix nodded and Spitfire stood up to greet his first customer, a young woman with beautiful long, black hair which kinda fascinated Phoenix because of the many shining reflexes on the hair. _Just like eagle's hair _. . . she thought.

Soon the salon was filled with people and Phoenix found herself trying to look at all of them at the same time. They were all so very different and still they were all human beings. They were old and young with short and long hair, green, blue or brown eyes. Few of their faces had many wrinkles and others were perfectly clean and silky. Words were flying through the room; shouting, laughing, the jingly sound of the many little silver scissors. Suddenly Phoenix felt lonely. There were so many people in this salon, but nobody had the same hair color as her, no one had the same piercing red-colored eyes. She even had been asked two times where she'd dye here hair. Sure, Spitfire also had red hair, bit the color of his hair wasn't that intense and his eyes were grew-blue. _Am I that different?_

"My my, what's with that sad look on your face, sweetheart?"

Phoenix raised her view in surprise to see a tall woman with silky dark-blue hair hanging framing her slightly pale face. "Uhm . . . hi."

The woman's smile got even broader after that clearly unsure response of the little girl. She took a place next to Phoenix and asked again:

"What brought that gloomy look on your face? Did something happen?"

Phoenix look at her with irritation in her eyes, that woman seemed to be weird, but in the same way that she was weird herself and Spitfire. It was a good weirdness . . . somehow.

"Who are you?"

"A friend of Spitfire."

The expression on Phoenix face got darker. "So, you're a friend of that girl called Simca?"

The woman shrugged. "Well, I'm a member of Genesis, her team."

"Benkei, what a surprise to meet you here?"

Spitfire had just finished another customer and walked towards the couch were Benkei sat next to Phoenix.

"Hey, Spitfire, how are you doing?" She greeted the Flame King.

"I can't complain, business is going well these days."

"That's nice to hear . . . I've heard you are taking care of that young lady here for a few weeks." Benkei smiled and put her hand on top of Phoenix' head who was quite surprised that it didn't feel as uncomfortable as when Simca had touched her the same way. That woman was . . . different.

"Well, you're right. But more importantly, what brought you here? Did something happen?" Slight worry appeared in Spitfire's eyes, but Benkei shook her head. "No need to worry, I'm simply accompanying Yoshistune; he's got some business at Tool Toul Too's headquarter . . . getting his tuner and stuff like that, you know."

"Ah, I get it. So Ine finally had found a way to force him leaving his beloved home in Kioto?"

Benkei didn't answered, but grinned amused which was enough as a response. Spitfire turned his head towards Phoenix and said:

"By the way, you may take place on that seat now, the next customer will be in one hour, I think I should be able to finish your haircut till then."

The red-haired girl nodded and went towards the said seat in front of the mirror. Strands of different colored hair were lying around on the floor, but Phoenix couldn't find any with the same tome of red as hers.

"She's cute", Benkei whispered as she leaned back and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Will she attend the meeting next week?"

"She said she'd go."

The woman smiled and finally stood up. "Well,I'm looking forward to it." Then she left the salon. "I'll go and pick up Yoshitsune."

"Spitfire?"

"Yeah?"

"I think, I'm scared."

Spitfire looked up from the strand of hair between his fingers which he was shortening right now. His eyes met Phoenix' dark-red orbs reflected in the mirror. "Of what are you scared?"

"That meeting."

The Flame King smiled softly. "But that's absolutely natural; you'll always be scared of things you don't know."

"It is natural for a human being?"

"Sure."

Phoenix didn't answer and Spitfire couldn't say why her eyes suddenly became cloudy.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Tht's it for today ^^

Leave a review and tell me if or why you liked or disliked it ^^ Thanks a lot for reading this far!  
Bye FreakyPumpkinX3


	13. Underestimated Genius I

Hey everyone ^^

Okay, before you kill for not writing about the upcoming Genesis-meeting PLEASE let me explain!

First: It is true that I had holidays the past two weeks, but I had to finish an exposition for chemistry and it took me longer than I had thought it would.

Second: I have mentioned in the last chapter that Benkei and Yoshitsune had left Kioto because Yoshitsune had business at the Tool Toul To-headquarter; so, this chapter is about what happens to the Rumble King while Benkei visits Spitfire and gets to know Phoenix.

Third: I thought it might get boring for a few of you if I'm always writing about the same two persons, so I decided to make this Extra-chapter ^^ (This way I can also introduce a few more of my own characters which i can introduce to Phoenix and Spitfire later on.)

Please give it a shot!

at Hitsugi's Lover: I hope you don't regret putting me on your alert-list after this chapter XD and I promise as long as there is anybody that shows interest in this story I won't stop writing it! ^^

at Meg L.H: Don't kill m for making you wait a bit longer for the Genesis-meeting. . But I may say that falcon (a.k.a Falk) is definitely going to show up ~.^

at MIzz ANimE TenSHi: I've never gotten such many reviews at once X3 That comment absolutely made my day! ^^

Chapter twelve: Underestimated Genius (part one) 

There was a room at the headquarter of Tool Toul To which everybody tried to avoid the most. There was a table at the cafeteria where nobody wanted to eat lunch. There was a name which every member of team only whispered. And there was a girl, a tuner, who owned that certain room and ate lunch at that certain table. A girl whose name everybody only whispered fearfully . . . well, almost everybody.

"AZARNI WHERE THE HECK ARE YOU?"

Ine was about to explode and every girl jumped out of her way as the Pledge Queen was running through the hallways. Murmurs filled the air and there was a tension floating in the atmosphere which you could have almost grabbed with your bare hands.

"AZARNI!"

The girl with that certain name looked up from her table where nobody ever wanted to sit with her during lunch. She blinked a couple of times and whispered to herself:

"I just had the feeling that someone was screaming my name . . . but I feel like I shouldn't be found by that certain person."

She was right, but that idea was formed in her head a few seconds too late because right in the next moment Ine Makigami shot through the entrance-door of the cafeteria and spotted Azarni sitting on the same table as every day.

"WHERE THE HECK HAVE YOU BEEN?"

Ine stopped in front of the certain table and glared down at that certain member of her team.

"Uhm, down here . . . I ate my lunch."

Actually Azarni was quite happy that the table separated her from the furious Pledge Queen. She thought about several things she had done lately which could have made Ine that angry, but she couldn't think of something which would explain the current situation. So, she asked out of reflex:

"What have I done this time?"

"NOTHING!"

What the . . . ? Her sensei just screamed at her because she had done nothing? Either Ine had had way too much coffee last night and was suffering a caffeine-shock right now or something really bad had happened which Azarni could have prevented from happening by doing something – whatever that could be.

"YOU HAVE DONE NOTHING! WHICH IS EXACTLY THE PROBLEM HERE!"

Ine was about to jump right into the face of that girl sitting in front of her while this certain girl was begging to all known gods that this was a coffein-shock. Hope still dies last . . .

"YOU HAVEN'T CLEANED UP THE MESS YOU'VE MADE YESTERDAY EVENING! YOU HAVEN'T FIXED THE SIGN 'STAIRS JUST CLEANED!' AND YOU HAVEN'T HEARD THE SCREAMING OF THREE GIRLS WHO FELL DOWN SAID STAIRS!"

. . . but it dies!

"Uhm . . . I absolutely wanted to clean up the mess from yesterday after lunch."

She was as good as dead!

Yoshistune stood in the entrance hall of the Tool Toul To-headquarter and looked startled at the door on his right side. Was that just Ine he had heard screaming wildly? He checked the signs next to the door: _Cafeteria, Toilets_.

The Rumble King grinned. Maybe one of the tuners had written something unfriendly on the wall of one of the toilets. One second later the Pledge Queen pushed said door open and looked pretty pissed off. A girl who seemed to be one of the older tuners followed her through the door, but as Yoshitsune got a closer look on the girl he raised his eyebrows. _Wow, seems like she was the one who made Ine freak out like that_, he thought because the tuner's view was kinda glued to the ground and she didn't seem to be that happy about the current situation.

The Pledge Queen lead the girl to an understated door and opened it for her.

"You'll find everything necessary in here. Take what you need and then get to work."

The girl snorted and followed the order unwillingly. "Sure", she grumbled.

Ine sighed and mentioned additional:"Unfortunately I'm too busy to overlook your work, but I'll send Kana to watch over you later. So, don't you even dare to think about skipping."

"Because there are so many possibilities for me to run away?", the girl responded ironically, but was ignored by her sensei who simply turned around and walked towards Yoshitsune. He had started to enjoy the scene, but now that he was facing Ine the amused smile disappeared from his face and was exchanged by a serious expression.

"Good afternoon, Yoshitsune. Nice to meet you", Ine greeted her guest with a professional smile. "The pleasure is all mine, Pledge Queen."

Azarni stared grumpily at the brooms and buckets, which were packed in that stinking little room. "Damn", she muttered and sighed before finally grabbing a broom, a bucket, a sponge and some other cleaning-stuff. Why the heck was she making such a fuss about this; it's just a table – my table, to be exact – with some old acrylic color on it. No big deal and Ine wouldn't have died if it had been cleaned two hours later. Azarni snorted again, left the little storage-room and kicked the door close. She ignored the shocked squeal of the young receptionist and her disgusted look as she recognized Azarni walking by. The older tuner ignored the reaction of the young brunette and just kept walking towards the elevator to get to the second floor where said table were waiting for her to be cleaned.

After the metal doors had shut and the small cabin started moving, Azarni stared at her face which was reflected by the shining metal. She was a nineteen years old girl with dark-blond, shoulder-length hair with turquoise highlights – her mother would have almost killed her the day she had had left the house with long, black hair and had come home with dark-blond, shorter hair and those highlights. A tired smile appeared on Azarni's lips. She had been sick of perverted high-school teenager who were flirting with because they thought she'd be a clueless virgin who was dreaming of the first true love. They had said the same things again and again: _Your eyes are beautiful. Your smile is cute._

"Shitty bastards." Azarni gritted her teeth as the elevator stopped and she left the cabin. She entered a simple hallway with gray walls and doors, which were lined up at the right. Across from every door there was a painting hanging on the walls, but Azarni didn't pay much attention to them though most of them had been painted by her. She was a member of Tool Toul To for about nine years now and she knew almost every edge of this headquarter which didn't mean that she was happy working here. But she liked ATs and actually she really liked her work as a tuner though she wasn't as naive as most of the other girls which were dreaming of becoming the tuner of one of the eight kings. Every girl had her own favorite king and the girls who already were the tuner of a king were patronized – not only by Ine Makigami.

Once she had been the same way . . . when her hair had been still black hair, she was working hard and almost freaking out every time a king had visited the headquarter. But many things had changed since then.

Azarni's working room was at the end of the hallway where a glass door lead towards the stairs. The stairs had been polished two days ago and it still wasn't possible to use them because some kind of special polish had been used. Azarni shrugged and kicked the door which lead to her room open. There was a single table standing inside and a dark-blue colored office chair had it's place right behind it. Rays of sunlight shone through the glass of the window at the back of the room and stroked the dried acrylic color on the table.

"Well, let's get to work."

At Ine's office Yoshitsune had taken place in front of the Pledge Queen.

"How did it work out?", the Rumble King asked while pointing at his regalia which was lying on Ine's desk. The Pledge Queen took some sheets of paper out of one of the drawers of her desk. "I've asked one of the older one's to do the job because it's mostly easier for them to work with a regalia whose King they don't know."

"I see." Yoshitsune leaned back in his chair and took the sheets of paper from Ine. There was the technical report of the temporary tuning written on it because Yoshitsune didn't have a personal tuner by now, so the regalia couldn't be tuned personally for him and his way of riding. But he had to let them get tuned at least temporarily to be able to use them without taking the risk of suffering injuries. If the wavelengths of a regalia don't match the ones of the king at all, it is likely to be happening that the parts get worn out too fast which makes more risky.

Yoshitsune examined the ATs on Ine's desk closely. With the amount of knowledge he had he could say that the work was done by quite skillfull hands, but one the other hand he highly doubted that there would be a tuner in this team without a minimum level of skill which already was high above average skills.

"Would you mind telling me which of your girls did this?" He raise his view from the regalia and was surprised to see a glance of annoyance lighting up in Ine's eyes even if was just for a second.

"Her name's Azarni. She is a member for about nine years now. Actually I wanted to give the job to Yama, the oldest member, but she got ill."

"Why is that so? I mean it seems that this Azarni-girl had done a good job."

Ine snorted and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "I've never said that I doubt the fact that she has got what it takes to tune a regalia."

"So, why did you want to give the job to another girl?" Yoshitsune didn't know why he was that interested all of a sudden, but the fact that Ine seemed not to think of that girl so highly kinda caught his attention. Normally she was very proud of every single member. Ine sighed and placed her elbows on the top of the desk.

"She's not that very easy to handle. She can be stubborn like hell when she wants to be, she's got a short temper - oh, and she kinda is deaf to orders given to her . . . sometimes."

The Rumble King slowly nodded and remained silent for a few moments. "Why do you keep her in your team then?"

"I can't throw her out of the team just because I don't like the way she's working . . . at least she does a good job."

There was something in her voice which made Yosjitsune suspicious. Ine had been talking more relaxed before, but now she suddenly had tensed up. The grab of her hands had tightened and it seemed like she had memorized that line. It wasn't spoken freely and he was very sure she had thought it through for the case when someone would ever ask that question. _Why didn't you push her out of the team?_

Yoshitsune sighed. "Would it be possible for me to talk to her?"

"Sure", there that typical bossy tone was back in Ine's voice, "she's upstairs at third floor and I really hope she's cleaning up and fixing the sign – oh, I'd advise you to use the elevator . . . the stairs shouldn't be used by now." She mumbled that last part of the sentence and stood up to lead Yoshitsune towards the door as he suddenly remembered something.

"Oh, could it be that Azarni is that girl I've seen in the entrance?"

Ine raised her eyebrow questioning but seemed to remember that Yoshitsune had already been in the entrance when she had taken Azarni to lumber-room. "Yeah, that has been her . . ."

She opened the door and the Rumble King left the office with the regalia hanging over his shoulder.

"Come back when you've got used to the regalia a bit more. I guess it should be possible to pick a tuner for you then", Ine told him additionally as he walked towards the elevator. He turned around after pushing the button of saif elevator and nodded shortly in response. The Pledge Queen went back into her office and closed the door behind herself.

"Oh, come on! This is bullshit!"

With anger boiling up inside of her Azarni looked at the 'Attention! Slippery Stairs!'-sign hanging from the balustrade of the corkscrew stairs which lead to every floor of the headquarter. She had used all the warning tape she had found in her desk to prevent any human being – who knew a black and yellow striped tape wasn't the sign of the finish line of a race – from using the stairs. Actually it should be fine with just making it impossible to get through to the stairs, but Azarni didn't want too take the risk of being yelled at again because some genius decided to climb over the warning tape and to use the stairs anyhow. Because that genius would definitely slip, fall and run to Ine to accuse Azarni for not hanging up that f*cking sign. The problem simply was that said sign didn't want to stay stuck to the warning tape and if Azarni would suspend it from the balustrade said genius would mention that it gad been impossible to see the sign from that position. And the saddest thing of all was that Azarni knew all this out of former experiences with the members of this team.

She sighed and mumbled: "Man, and they call me short-tempered because I freaked out when they had accused me for breaking a vase in the entrance the third time though I had been absent the whole damn week because of a stinking flew."

When Yoshitsune left the elevator he was greeted with the scream "JUST STAY THERE YOU FUCKING SIGN!". An amused smile was formed on his lips and he silently approached the furious girl whose hair colour he recognize from their "meeting" in the entrance. She actually seemed to be simply a very strong-willed and self-confident girl, in his opinion – though he only knew her for about one hour.

"Hi", he said and the smile on his lips turned into a grin as he saw the girl with the charming name Azarni jumping around with shock-widened eyes.

"Who the hell -", she began, but was cut off by the Rumble King. "Are you Azarni?"

Her view instantly became sceptical. "Who wants to know that?"

"Me . . . I'm Yoshitsune."

"Ah", understanding lightened up in Azarni's blue eyes. "You're the new Rumble King."

"Yeah . . . you've been the one working on my regalia, right?"

"I've just done a temporary tuning because Yama had caught a flew, if you wanna –"

"I know that . . . I've already talked this through with Ine."

"So, why are you here then?" She crossed her arms in front of her chest, but Yoshitsune just shrugged and answered:

"I wanted to thank you for your good work."

"You shouldn't thank me before you've done a test run."

His grin got even wider; actually he really started to like that girl. She wasn't like these energetic youngsters. They could be really exhausting sometimes. A soft chuckle escaped his lips and he lifted on hand.

"Well, however . . . I thank you for your hard work. If you give me your phone number, I could call you to tell you how the test run went." Yoshitsune expected her to give in with an amused smile, but Azarni simply kneeled down to pick up the sign she was screaming at earlier and mentioned without looking at him.

"That's something you should discuss with Ine or your personal tuner. . . not a random member like me." With these words she straightened up and went into a room nearby the glass door. As Yoshitsune made an attempt to follow her, she closed the door and he could hear how she locked it, too.

"I think I've already decided which member I'd like to have as my personal tuner", the Rumble King mumbled and made his way back to the elevator. Maybe he would have stayed longer to wait till that girl opened the door again, but he knew Benkei was waiting for him and making her wait longer than necessary wasn't the best thing to do.

Heeeeeeeeeey, you've read the whole chapter? THat's great ^^ now you can tell me how you liked because if you did there'll be another chapter about Yoshitsune and Azarni AFTER the Genesis-meeting . . . uhm, and if you didn't like it, tell me why and I won't write another Extra-chapter about those two.

The chapter about the meeting is also already halfway finished - I swear! - but I'd have to know if I should mention Azarni in the next chapter or not! ^^

Well, then that's it for today! Bye FreakyPumpkin! ^^


	14. When the Wind blows

**Hey there ^^**

**Here goes the first part of the Genesis-meeting. There is just part of the meeting described, but I hope it'll shorten your time of waiting till I finish the next chapter. ^^**

**Azarni will be mentioned in the next chapter and I decided to write a second Extra-chapter (Missjudged Genius II).**

**This chapter will be dedicated to Meg L.H for writing the most reviews for the past few chapters. I hope you'll like it! ^^v**

Chapter twelve: When the Wind blows

The meeting was set at Saturday afternoon the following and Spitfire couldn't sleep at all the night before. He was lying in his bed, looking up at the gray ceiling.

"Damn, I wished she wouldn't have decided to attend this meeting", he sighed and covered his eyes with the palm of one hand. He couldn't really put a finger on it, but he had a bad feeling about what would happen the next day. But suddenly his thoughts were cut off by a sound coming from the door of his bedroom. The door was slowly pushed open, but Spitfire couldn't see who was entering because the light in the hallway were still switched off.

"Spitfire?" The Flame King almost suffered a heart attack as suddenly someone whispered his name, but then he realized that it was Phoenix who stood in the doorway peeking into the darkness of his bedroom.

"Ph-phoenix?", Spitfire asked hesitantly still startled by the unexpected guest. "What are you doing here? Is something wrong?"

"Uhm . . . I'm sorry, did I wake you up?"

He sighed, but then a smile was formed on his lips. "Nah, don't worry . . . I couldn't sleep." Phoenix bit her lower lip and stepped one step further into the room. "M-may I come in? I couldn't sleep, too."

"Sure . . . come in", Spitfire answered with a soft voice. He sat up in his bed and moved over a bit so that the red-haired girl had place to sit on the bed with him. She crawled on the bed and took place cross-legged. "Thanks for letting me in", she mumbled and looked down at her feet. "Sure thing . . . ", Spitfire agreed absent-minded while looking at the wall behind Phoenix. After a short while he realized that Phoenix wouldn't go on talking and asked carefully:

"Why did you come over?"

Phoenix didn't raise her gaze and she didn't even seem to listen to him.

"May I sleep here this night?"

Spitfire opened his mouth to repeat his question, but then he changed his mind and remained silent. He just lifted the blanket, but Phoenix shook her hed as she recognized his movement. "Don't worry", she whispered with a low voice which reminded Spitfire of the fact that she wasn't a normal child. "I'm fine without a blanket, I'm not cold." She sounded sad.

The Flame King sighed and looked at her directly as she was sitting thre in front of him. Her bangs were shorter now, but they were still long enough to cover her eyes when she lowered her head. "You are the one who doesn't have to worry", he said with a strict educcating tone, "I don't mind sharing the blanket."

Now Phoenix raised her view and the serious expression on her face made a shiver running down Spitfire's spine. Her red eyes almost seemed to gleam a bit in the darkness. _As if there was a fire burning behind those eyes. _

He reached out and placed his hand on her head, but the words which wer already almost formed by his lips got stuck in his throat as he recognized the warmth which came from Pheonix. Sure, he had touched her quite a few time the last three weeks, but now he recognized that her skin had never been cold even on the day when he had met her on the street. Maybe he had been too absorbed in her strange behaviour that he hadn't minded it.

"You're warm", he whispered.

The look in Phoenix' eyes got cloudy again, just like the day he had cut her hair. A deep sadness filled those beautiful red orbs and they sorta became dull.

"I know . . . I've always been warm. I don't like cold weather, but I was never cold."

Then she smiled and looked down at her feet again.

"The day I feel cold, will be the day I die-"

Maybe she had wanted to say more, but any word which could have left her mouth were muffled by Spitfire's T-Shirt which was wearing for sleeping. Out of a reflex he couldn't really explain he had reached out for Phoenix and pulled her into a tight embrace. Her eyes were widened in surprise. "Sp-spitfire?"

But Spitfire didn't answer; he just tightened the embrace a little. He could feel the heat of Phoenix' body and suddenly the thought of a fire burning inside of her didn't seem to be that off-key. "I'll never let you get cold", he managed to whisper after a while. "I promise."

His eyes started burning when he felt Phoenix' arms embracing him as well.

"I promise to keep you warm in return", she whispered and Spitfire could hear the smile accompanying these words.

A chuckle escaped Spitfire's lips and he said:

"You may sleep here as often as you like, Phoenix."

"That's nice of you, but you have to let go of me if we wanna get some sleep tonight."

Laughing Spitfire did let go of her and ruffled her hair slightly. "You're right."

Phoenix smiled happily.

The next day started way too early in Spitfire's opinion and as he watched his reflection in the mirror in the bathroom, he grimaced and refused to accept that this guy in the mirror was himself. He took a peek on his watch and mumbled:

"Damn . . . I definitely didn't get enough sleep." He rubbed his eyes and sighed. "But I guess, I can't change a thing about it now." So he left the bathroom yawning and entered the kitchen where Phoenix tried to reach a bowl at the top of the shelf hangig on the wall over the dishwasher. "Don't fall", Spitfire mentioned wearily and took place on the kitchen table to fill up a cup of coffee.

"Did you know, that coffee may cause a heart attack?", Phoenix asked warningly. She had taken place on the workingplate filling up the reached bowl with milk. Then she added cornflakes and wondered where she had put the spoon which she had pulled out earlier.

"So, today is the big day?", Spitfire asked. After the first sip of coffee he felt a bit more lively. Phoenix nodded in response and finally found the spoon which was laying right behind her.

"Are you still scared of the meeting?"

Phoenix tought about for a while, but shook her head then and put a spoon of milk-soaked cornflakes into her mouth. "Not anymore", she answered after swallowing the cornflakes. Spitfire smiled slightly. "Well, I'm glad to hear that."

"But could you tell me what kind of people I'm going to meet there? Do I have to pay attention on what I'm saying and stuff like that?"

"Nah, I don't think so. As long as you don't humiliate someone . . ."

"So I can't tease Simca?" Phoenix sounded honestly disappointed which made a laugh escaping the Flame King's lips and he grinned at the pouting girl on the workingplate. "Maybe not at that meeting . . . just try to be a nice girl and I don't think that anybody will harm you."

"So, how are those people of that Genesis-team?" Phoenix started sipping the milk from the bowl because she had fished all the cornflakes out of it. Spitfire leaned back in his chair, holding his second cup of coffee firmly with his right hand.

"Uhm . . . I'm pretty sure that you'll meet Benkei again, for example -"

"Oh, the woman from the salon?"

The Flame King nodded and continued:

"Ah, and Nue, of course." Phoenix grimaced slightly. "And Yoshitsune, he is the Rumble King of the Over Road."

"A king? So he is the best in his way of riding AT's?"

Spitfire nodded again. "Yeah, you can put it that way."

"So, what's that Yoshitsune-guy like?"

_Perverted_ was the first word that came to Spitfire's mind, but in the end he said out loud:

"He is . . . special."

Phoenix raised both eyebrows and didn't seem to get what Spitfire tried to tell her. "In what kind of way is he special?"

"He's got a thing for girls."

"Really?" She suddenly sounded scared and her view became dull. Spitfire recognnized what he had just said and so he shot up from his chair and lifted his hands in a defensive gestzre. "But don't worry, he's actually a nice guy . . . it just takes getting used to his behaviour. Oh, and he's got his heart on his sleeve . . . sometimes."

Phoenix blinked a few times, but still didn't seem to let go of her scepsis that easily. Spitfire sighed and looked straight into her eyes with a soft, honest smile on his lips.

"Don't worry, he's a nice guy. I promise."

Suddenly the girl beamed at him and mentioned: "If you say so . . ."

Spitfire slightly shook his head then he asked: "At which time was the meeting set again?"

"Uhm . . . half past three", mumbled Phoenix while she was filling up the bowl again with milk and cornflakes. The Flame King finished his second cup of coffee and took a slice of toast out of the breadbasket. _Maybe I should get a fe more hours of sleep till then, I kinda have the feeling it could be helpful to be fully awake at this meeting,_ he thought and sighed.

Three o'clock.

Of course he hadn't had slept till then, but actually he wasn't really surprised about it because he had had started watching some old videos of kids riding ATs. Phoenix had had pestered him with question about the videotaped tricks; how they were called and if she'd be able to learn them, too. But the Flame King had discovered very fast that it was fun to be the omniscient teacher because Phoenix had listened closely to every word which had left his lips.

"Oh, is it already time to go?", the girl asked with a dissappointed look on her face when Spitfire switched off the TV.

"Yeah, let's get ready for the meeting." He yawned once again and slowly scuffled towards his shoes which were lying at the entrance of the living-room. In the meantime, Phoenix took her favourite sweater with the printing 'Wait! I'm trying to imagine you with a personality'. Since her last meeting with Simca it kinda had become her favourite one.

(Okay, I would have written something about the way to the place of the Genesis-meeting, but I couldn't think of anything o.O)

They arrived three minutes too late, but Spitfire knew that it wouldn't be dramatic because at least the Rumble King would be still arriving after them. The meeting was set at an abandoned sports field any many different people were lingering around at the bleachers which were surrounding the place. Others were doing tricks; racing around the field, jumping down from the higher ranks of the bleachers, doing countless somersaults and Phoenix began to wonder when the first one would have to puke.

The first one who recognized Spitfire and Phoenix who had instinctively grabbed the Flame Kings Hand, was Nue. He had been talking to a bunch of kids which were all wearing weird masks and white cloaks. Phoenix sceptically eyed those children while Nue waved them goodby and approached Spitfire. "Who are those children?", Phoenix whispered.

"Oh, they are members of Nue's team."

"He already has his own team."

Spitfire smiled amused. "Sure he does, he also already holds the title of the Thunder King."

The girl's eyes became big and were filled with pure surprise, but then she crossed her arms in front of her chest and mumbled:

"He doesn't look much like thunder – more like lavender."But she kept silent when Nue reached them. He greeted Spitfire with a short nodding and asked with a serious expression on his young face: "May I talk to you for a sec?"

First Spitfire hesitated; he looked down at Phoenix like he was wondering if it would be okay to leave her alone for a while because he could see clearly that Nue wanted to talk to him in private. She understood what was going on and wasn't very happy about it, but she had spotted Benkei entering the sports field followed by a man in a funny-colored shirt – s, she decided to accept it this time. "Don't worry, Spitfire, I'll go and talk to Benkei over there", she pointed at the dark-blue-haired woman and her male company. "Just tell me when you're finished." With these word she ran off towards Benkei and Spitfire turned towards Nue.

"What is it?", he asked with a slightly confused look in his eyes because he couldn't remember anything going on lately which could be an explanation for Nue's behavior – first and foremost for his fierce expression.

Nue didn't answer right away; he slowly started walking towards an empty entrance to the sports field where nobody could spot them easily. "You wanted me to do some research on Sleepy Hollow, remember?"

Understanding lighted up in Spitfire's eyes. "Ah, sure . . . so, what did you find out?"

The Thunder King took a deep breath and he seemed to be very disturbed by something. He didn't look directly at Spitfire, his view were flying towards Phoenix who had now reached Benkei and Yoshitsune every few seconds.

"_Sleepy Hollow_ is the name of a research lab near the coast, but the name was given to it by the people working there. The official name is MAX #4. MAX stands short for _maximum laboratory_ #4 and it is said that it's founded by a big pharmaceutic business, but I couldn't get the name yet."

"Kay . . . so, there is a possibility that they're testing drugs on children?" Spitfire started thoughtfully chewing his lower lip while listening to his friend who seemed to get more disturbed every second. "Well, that's something pretty easy to get, first of all because in the cities within a radius of 200 kilometers there are missing, well, you can't really call it missing, but disappearing homeless orphans . . . but the rumors going around that at this laboratory they're doing experiment where they try to . . .uhm, kinda improve the physical abilities of these children."

The Flame King thought about it for a few seconds and finally started to understand why Nue was feeling that uneasy. They were about to discover something big, something cruel and terrible. Phoenix had been raised in a laboratory where not only new drugs were tested, but also they tried to genetically modify homeless children who no family would ever miss.

"So, it seems to be much like the Tower and the Gravity children?"

Se looked at Nue, but the Thunder King shook his head.

"It's – in a certain way – much more than this."

"What do you mean?" Spitfire didn't understand. More than what had happened to the Gravity children inside of the Tower; he had always thought that he could compare Phoenix' past pretty much with his own-

"Have you ever read or heard of the book _When the Wind blows_?", asked Nue and now he looked straight into Spitfire's gray-blue eyes. The Flame King felt like being pierced right through by these words though he hadn't had an idea of what they really meant back then.

**Well, that's it! ^^**

**First: I hope i didn't make the relationship between Phoenix and Spitfire too kitschy. If you think I did so, feel free to tell me. ^^**

**Second: If any of you has ideas or wishes of what he/she wants to read in upcoming chapters or if you want me to introduce a certain character, feel also free to tell me that. it's not like I don't have any ideas and I can't promise that your wishes will be fully granted, but I'll definitely consider them while writing the chapters. I just thought it might be more fun for you to be able to "help" creating the fanfiction you like. X3**

**Third: "When the Wind blows" is a book written by James Patterson. If you don't know it, maybe reading a summary would help you to discover what had happened at _Sleepy Hollow _though I can tell you that it's not completely the same.  
**

**That's all for today ^^ Thanks for reading and please leave a review! **

**Bye FreakyPumpkin  
**


	15. Dead Birds don't fly

**Hey there ^^**

**Yeah, I'm very sorry for making you wait after that cliffhanger. u.u **

**In the beginning I have to deeply apologize that Phoenix doesn't get that much contact with the other storm riders because I had to kinda reveal a great part of her past in this chapter and in my opinion she has already met the most important riders of Genesis. The chapter would have gotten even longer if I had written more about other riders and my fingertips would be bleeding by now. If you'd like to read it, I could write a chapter were Phoenix starts training with the Genesis-riders. ^^  
**

_Meg L.H:_** I hope you found "When the Wind blows"; i've only read the german version, but I think the original might be at least as good as the german translation. Making Phoenix to embarass Simca didn't really work out because the chapter had a very serious topic, si I hope you'll like it nevertheless. Oh, and maybe you'll get the romance when Phoenix had grown up a bit. ^^**

_Hitsugi's Lover_**_:_ I hope you're gonna be alright with the ending of this chapter X3**

_AZUREciel:_** Well, I hope the ongoing of the meeting will be okay with, but if you desire to read more about how Phoenix gets affiliated by the other riders, tell. I've suggested to write a chapter about her training. *pointing at the note aove*  
**

Chapter fourteen: Dead Birds don't fly

"When the Wind blows?"

"Yeah, ever heard of it?"

"Nope . . . seems to be pretty strange name for a book, don't you think?"

Phoenix looked up at Spitfire who sat next to her on the bleachers. Almost all the places around the sports field were filled by now. Soft chattering was carried by the wind and Simca was almost finished with the last preparations, so that the meeting would be started any moment.

"What's it about?"

The Flame King lowered his gaze towards the girl next to him. "The book?"

"What else?" Phoenix narrowed her eyebrows and wondered why Spitfire seemed to be that absent-minded though he was the one who had brought up the topic. _What has that Nue-guy told him?_

"The book was written by the american author James Patterson. It's about a girl named

Max, which stands short for maximum; she lives with other children at a secret research lab in the woods. The codename _Tinkerbell_ was given to her there." He was hoping for any reaction to the name of the little fairy – known from so many fairytales – but he knew that Phoenix didn't know it. Her eyes wouldn't start to sparkle by hearing that fairy's name and there wouldn't be an excited look on her face when she'd remember how Tinkerbell had helped children to fly in the story of Peter Pan. He slightly sighed and continued because Phoenix' look already started to get questioning. At least, he wanted to continue . . .

"What happened at that lab?", Phoenix asked with a serious voice and Spitfire felt hope raising in his chest. She wasn't asking about how the story went on, she wanted to get more information about the lab. Maybe that was a first step.

"Well, there were scientists who tried to add attributes of birds to the bodies of these children. They had wings, were able to fly and laid eggs – theoretically."

"So, Max was a modified human being." The red-haired girl looked down the bleachers and seemed to look at the back of the heads of the other riders, but her view became kinda empty.

"You can put it that way . . .", the Flame King softly answered. He was aware of Phoenix' behaviour and he didn't want to push her too far because he wanted her to tell him about her past of her own will not because he had had forced her to talk about it. "But one day, Max escapes and meets a veterinarian. A woman who had just lost her husband and -"

"Does she return to the lab in the end?"

-+-+-+-+-+-+- Phoenix' POV -+-+-+-+-+-+-

His voice seemed to be very far away that I couldn't even clearly say what he was telling me about that woman. A vet? Yeah, whatever!

"Does she return to the lab in the end?"

"Uhm . . . no, she stays with the woman, I think . . . oh, they're meeting their parents in the end."

They? So, the other children also succeed in escaping . . . what a nice story. I felt a sad smile appearing on my lips. Yeah, a really nice story. It's a great imagination of the author . . . it is taken as an imagination because nobody would ever expect it to be true.

"Why are you telling me this?"

I looked up at Spitfire again and I could see it in his eyes; I could see that he was telling me all this on purpose, but the fact that he didn't try to hide that made me happy . . . somehow.

"Nue told me a few facts about _Sleepy Hollow_."

"What did he find out?"

-+-+-+-+-+-+- Spitfire's POV -+-+-+-+-+-+-

"What did he find out?"

I told her about experimenting with drugs and that they used homeless orphans for those experiments. Phoenix smiled sadly and whispered:

"So that was why they were always screaming that much."

Surprise filled my eyes when I turned my look towards her while she was still looking down the bleachers. "You didn't know?", I asked puzzled. Why didn't she know anything about those experiments? Well, it could mean that his idea of her being one of the genetical modified children, was true.

"My room was located at the first floor where all those scientists also were living."

I was holding my breath, but after some time my lungs were screaming for air, so I did slowly breath out. It was clear to me that she didn't like talking about the time back at the lab, but I wanted to know about it so badly. I wanted to understand the deep sadness in her eyes which had had appeared in the salon the last week. I waned to know why she was always looking up at the sky every moment when she thought I wouldn't notice; but I did notice. I noticed her sighs and I also heard her crying in the bathroom the other day.

_What has happened to her?_

-+-+-+-+-+-+- Normal POV -+-+-+-+-+-+-

Simca finally started the meeting. She was talking through a microphone because the sports field was way too big to reach everyone's ears with only the normal volume of her voice. (I hope you get, what I'm trying to say. O.o)

"I hope you already know why I have chosen today for the meeting. It's been now one year that our beloved Storm King Mizuki Takeshima had passed away in hospital after a fight against the top of Trophaeum. He had died a glorious death and we have to carry his dreams to the sky on our wings."

The members of Genesis started to scream in agreement. A few of them even stood up from the plastic chairs on which they had been sitting on the bleachers, then they screamed something Ohoenix didn't understand and bowed down once before taking their places again.

"Someoe had died?", she asked. Spitfire simply nodded and explained with a serious tone in his voice: "Yeah, he had been appointed as Storm King last year around August. Then he had challenged the team _Sleeping Forest_ and was badly beaten."

"The sky is a cruel place", Phoenix whispered while she was focusing on Simca who went on with talking about dreams, flying, a great wind coming their way and wings which would have the strength to carry all riders of Genesis. "You've got no idea what you are talking about, Pinky."

"You seem to know very much about the sky." Spitfire tried to continue their former discussion, Phoenix recognized that and turned her empty look at him. "Want me to tel you another story?", she whispered. He remained silent for a few moments before slowly answering: "Another legend? How about the truth this time?"

A soft chuckle escaped Phoenix' lips. "Their is no such thing as a real legend; those are just stories of far gone days, which were almost forgotten. So, the people remembering them told them to their children like a dream they had had and the children named those dreams _legends_. That's all", she mentioned, but she didn't seem to be angry at Spitfire, so he returned the smile which started to appear on her lips.

"Well then . . . how about telling me the rest of the story?"

She took a deep breath and raised her gaze at the clear, blue sky. "You remember when I've told you about the four Kings ruling the sky and what had happened to the phoenix?"

"Sure . . . the phoenix' feathers had been burned by the sun and he had fallen down to the earth were he had gotten captured."

"Yeah, he was captured and the falcon was looking for him . . . but that's not the end", Phoenix said with a low voice that made a cold shiver running down Spitfire's spine. "Actually the falcon found the phoenix, but he got captured, too, by the scientists. These scientists were obsessed with the dream of flying. They recognized how strong the wings of those two captured birds truley were; they were more powerful then the ones of any other bird on which they had ever done any research."

Spitfire swallowed hard. Phoenix' voice was so cold that she almost seemed like a killer who was about to pull the trigger while holding a gun against the forehead of one of these scientists. Well, actually it kinda made sense because one of them had raped her . . . but he wasn't happy of this fact making sense. The expression in her eyes kinda scared him.

"Let's think about the problem of the scientists. They had to find a possibility to combine these powerful wings of those two birds with a human organism. They had to find a container, a body, which was able to handle the birds' power."

She stopped for a moment and covered her face with her hands. "They found out that a child's body would be able to handle the power and soul of one of those birds." Phoenix sniffed. "One day I woke up and there was that child standing in front of my cage", she continued, but Spitfire could hear that she was ashamed about what she was about to tell him. Her voice got higher and a desperate tone was mixed into it. "She had been looking at me with those big round, fascinated eyes. I had screamed at her; I had screamed _RUN AWAY!_, but she couldn't understand me. It hadn't been the first time that I had found da child standing there looking at me and it teared my soul apart to know what would happen to her. The scientists injected a certain drug into her veins and she immediately lost her conciousness. I don't know what they have exactly done to me and her, but I know that I suddenly heard her voice and I saw her face though I knew I had my eyes closed . . . she was reaching out for me, she was trying to touch my wings; I tried to prevent that from happening, but I couldn't. She touched my feathers and suddenly flames covered her body. I thought she would die like all these other children before, but she didn't and when I woke up the second time I looked through her eyes."

She sniffed again and just as Spitfire wanted to touch her shoulder carefully she lifted her head and looked straight into his eyes. He took back his hand and felt how his throat was drie like the sand in the desert. Her eyes were filled with the memories of the countless deaths of those children. _They have died because of me._

His thoughts were racing, but he couldn't catch at least one of them. Experimenting with drugs . . . children with wings . . . dissappearance of homeless orphans . . . burning feathers . . . burning flesh . . . screaming children . . . he felt terribly queasy.

"That can't be . . .", he mutterd stunned. His eyes were filled with pure shock as he realized what had been done by these idiotoc men. Phoenix didn't lie, he knew that this story was way too much for someone too simply make up. She was dead serious.

"I'm hearing her crying soul every night."

"Oh my god."

"There's no god in this world . . ." She still looked at him with that expression in her eyes which made her looking so much older and suddenly Spitfire realized that the little girl she seemed to be was a mask; a mask created to fit into society. She had exeperienced how it felt not to be taken serious and she had gotten used to it. She had gotten used to a society that was looking down on her. _You wanted to know about my past, now deal with the details,_ her eyes seemed to be telling him_._

Spitfire rubbed his closed eyes, took a deep breath and asked with a hoarse voice without looking at the girl sitting next to him: "What happened to the falcon?"

Phoenix wanted to answer as suddenly Simca's voice did cut her off. The red-haired girl looked down at the pink-haired teen with a puzzled look on her face.

"I have to introduce someone to you today." That Pinky's voice sounded up at the higher ranks of the bleachers. She was smiling broadly at the younger girl who felt like hitting the older one right into the face._ What a shitty timing, Pinky._

She obviously expected Phoenix to come down to the middle of the sports field where Simca was standing on a little platform. The red-haired girl looked at Spitfire before raising from her place. "Dead birds will never be able to fly again."

Before the Flame King could react or at least say something Phoenix already made her way downstairs towards Simca. She walked down the stairs with a smile on her face.

So many eyes were looking at her. Most of the riders started to mumble behind her back. Everybody was focusing on the girl stepping down the stairs with her red hair shining in the sunlight. Nobody paid attention to the single bird flying high above the sports field. The sunlight stroke his shining brown-read-colored feathers. The look in his eyes were the tipical grumpy look of ever ordinary falcon, but his heart was pounding so fast. He opened his mouth and screamed; the high, sharp voice of the falcon did cut through the air. A few of the riders sitting on the higher ranks of the bleachers noticed the screaming of the bird, but they only looked up at the sky for a short moment, they spotted the falcon and then lowered their gaze towards the red-haired girl who had almost reached the middle of the sports field.

But Phoenix didn't hear him.

_Dead birds will never be able to fly again._

The real meeting actually started in the evening. The teams of Genesis had the tradition of eating dinner together after every official meeting at the sports field. Simca haf introduced Phoenix offically to the teams, so the little girl was allowed to take part in this after-meeting-dinner. The restaurant were they were always eating dinner like this had closed this evening. This way the members of Genesis were the only guests and actually they also filled every free seat.

Phoenix sat between Spitfire and Simca and she had expected it to be an uninteresting evenig, but the different riders were more lively than she had had thought. Nobody cared who belonged to which team; the children of Nue's team (does anybody know the name of that team?) were sitting at a round table with many other riders and they were all watching a man with shoulder-kength, black hair who was doing some tricks with cards. Phoenix had refused to accompany them.

"So, little Phoenix, how do you like the team?"

The red-haired girl turned her view from the now applauding group. She looked at Benkei ho were sitting across from her. "Well, it's a bit early to answer a question like that."

A chuckle escaped the older woman's lips and she grinned amused at the questioning look on Phoenix face. The girl also grinned, but suddenly she remembered something she wanted to ask.

"Oh, would you tell me what has happened to that so-called Storm King. Simca mentioned that he had died a few months ago."

The grin on Benkei's face disappeared immediately and she pressed her lips on each other with so much force that they almost lost all their color. Phoenix knew that it was an uncomfortable topic and that this wasn't the best situation to talk about it, but the death of someone wasn't something she's ignore that easily. She looked straight into Benkei's eyes and the woman looked back at her, but in the end it was Simca who gave the answer.

"He had been a promising young rider with powerful wings."

"He had wings?"

Phoenix narrowed her eyebrows and Simca was about to nod, but Spitfire was faster and placed one hand on the girl's head. He mentioned:

"No, he had been just a very skilled rider."

Simca looked at the Flame King with a bit of confusion in her expression, but the older man slightly shook his head and told her with his eyes to simply accept what he had said. She shrugged and continued to tell the story of the first Storm King.

"He had gained the title of King at a very young age. He was thick-headed, hot-tempered and quite self-confident. It happened that one day he got into a fight with the head of Trophaeum. The Sleeping Forest. He lost and died a few days later in hospital."

Silence grew amongst the rider who listened to that discussion, but nobody else recognized the sudden gloomy mood.

"What is that Trophaeum-thing?" Phoenix' gaze wandered over every face of the people sitting near her. She tried to figure out why that young Storm King had to die. For which purpose had he lost his life?

"The Trophaeum is a great tower which stands for the hierarchy of the storm riders and their teams. There are six ranks a storm rider can reach when he enters the fight for the top."

"And the team at the top right now are these Sleeping Forest-guys?"

Simca nodded and Phoenix lowered her gaze towards the white table cloth. "Why are you fighting, Simca?"

The pink-haired teen seemed to be honestly surprised when Phoenix adressed her with her real name. The girl didn't use some silly nickname this time, so a little smile appeared on the older girl's lips and she answered:

"We wanna reach the top and grab the freedom of the sky. That's why I'm always looking for the most talented riders in Japan."

Phoenix bit her lower lip and formed fists with her hands unter the table, but she remained silent and let Simca continue.

"You know there's a legend amongst the the storm riders who are aiming for the Top of says that the Sky King will appear when the eight Kings of the eight Roads gather again at the Top of Trophaeum and with his power the secret of the legendary Sky Regalia will be discovered again." (If anybody else have a better version of that legend, please tell me. ^^)

Anger boiled up inside of Phoenix, but she stayed calm – deadly calm.

"That is what he had died for?", she whispered. "You are talking a lot of bullshit, you know that, Pinky?"

Simca got angry, too. What did that insolent little thought she was? "Oh, yeah? Well, is looking down on everybody else all you're capable of?", she spitted in response while crossing her arms in front of her chest. Phoenix raised her head and mentioned:

"I'm sorry for appearing to be ignorant and arrogant, but do you really think that the sky can be ruled by only one King?"

_How should be one human being be capable in doing something in which four birds with the strongest wings, the sharpest eyes and beaks couldn't succeed from the beginning till now._

Phoenix felt Spitfire's hand on top of her head again and she felt like snapping out of a daze. She realized what she had said and what she had implied by saying it. She quickly bowed her head and mumbled:

"I'm very sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

A waiter came and brought several dishes with nice smelling food on them. Phoenix received a plate with different species of meat and fries. There were also some fried vegetables on it and as Benkei asked "Are you going to eat all that by yourself?" it finally seemed like the former discussion was forgotten. Even Simca seemed like she had accepted Phoenix' apology.

"Nope, I'll share it with Spitfire", Phoenix answered and put a piece of meat into her mouth. Benkei grinned and took a look at her own meal which was spaghetti carbonara. (You know what I mean, right? Btw, they're eating western food because I've got no real idea of japanese restaurants ^^)

Spitfire hasn't said something during the whole conversation because he was still working on what he had gotten to know about this afternoon. Nue was sitting next to Yoshitsune and across from the Flame King this way were aware of the odd behavior of his friend. He closely observed the older men, but didn't say anything.

-+-+-+-+-+- Flashback -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

"Shall I do any further research on the pharmaceutic industry wgich funds the labs?"

Spitfire was silent for a few moments before he answered:

"No, I don't think that it'll be necessary."

The Thunder King was obviously very surprised because his friend had seemed to be very interested in the details of Phoenix' past in the beginning.

"But why? Wouldn't it be better to know more about that child? What if there's anybody looking for her? The whole could get involved unintentionally."

Spitfire bit his lower lip. "Nue, she has lived on the streets for about three years. They could have found her and they could have killed her every day. But they haven't till now-"

"Yeah, till now . . . what if that changes in the next few months or weeks? You are popular amongst teenagers and AT-battles are broadcasted by the internet. She could be easily detected like this. It'd be better if we would know what we're dealing with before that happens."

The Flame King looked at the younger one with a furious expression on his face.

"Oh, and what if you're detected before any of this happens?", he shot back. "What if you get killed because you went too far into the lion's cave?"

Nue blew one of the longer strands of his lavendel-colored hair out if his eyes. His look was dead serious when he answered:

"Let me put clarify something, Spitfire . . . if she'd become a member of Genesis and if she'd enter the Parts War as one of our riders I'd give my live to protect her like everyone els in the team."

-+-+-+-+-+- Flashback End-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

_Damn_, Spitfire thought, while facing Nue's view. _I don't want anybody to die!_

But the sky can't be conquered without shedding any drip of blood. While almost all members were sitting inside the restaurant a cold wind started blowing outside, but the boy on the roof of the restaurant wasn't freezing at all. He had piercing yellow eyes and wild brown-red hair. A grin was formed on his lips as he strechted out his arms. Feathers began to grow and his human features tuned into the ones of a beautiful falcon. He looked up at the sky and thought, _Oh, dear sky, what a bloody bastard you are._

But there was no human voice coming out of his mouth just a high-pitched scream which couldn't be heard by that little girl with the blood-like red hair inside the restaurant. The howling of the stronger getting wind was way to loud.

**That's it for the day. ^^ IF THERE IS ANYTHING YOU DIDN'T GET THE WAY I EXPLAINED IT OR IF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER QUESTIONS, FEEL FREE TO TELL ME! ^^v  
**

**How did you like the falcon? XD Please leave a Review!**

**FreakyPumpkin**


	16. Underestimated Genius II

**Hey there ^^**

**I'm very sorry to make you wait even longer this time, but I was working the last weekend and exams are also starting again. I know this chapter isn't as long as the last, but i think that if I'd have made it longer it would have become too emotional. XD (and I like it this way, so . . . I guess you have to accept it X3)**

**Kay, it's the second part of Azarni's and Yoshitsune's story. And I'm begging you to tell me how you like Azarni in this chapter because she may have become a bit too emotional, compared to her character in the first part of "Missjudged Genius". o.O**

Meg L.H.:** I'm really glad you liked the last chapter ^^ But I guess I can't tell you anymore about the relationship between Phoenix and Falk. Just keep on reading! And I'll take you suggestion into consideration when buying the next keyboard. ^^v  
**

Hitsugi's Lover:** Falk, the bad guy? Hm, we will see X3 (Yeah, I'm mean, I know XD) Oh, and thanks for the great compliment on my english ^^ *hug* **

willyfreak26:** Hey ^^ I hope you'll like this chapter as well. And I may say this much that you'll find out what I've invented Mizuki for in this chapter! X3**

AZUREciel:** the chapter about Phoenix training with the other rider will be the next one, promised ^^v**

**Ah, and suggest to listen to "Winter Lullabye" and "Summer" by David Garrett while reading the part between Yoshitsune and Azarni, hope this way there will be the same atmosphere created on your heads which I had in mind while writing. **

Chapter fifteen: Underestimated Genius II

"Do you think she'll join?"

A little cloud of dense smoke flew towards the winter sky.

"Nah, no chance."

Yoshitsune took a sip of the coffee Benkei had offered him. The young woman smiled and took a sip of coffee from her own cup. "Yeah, I thought so, too."

They were standing outside of a little coffee bar and looked at the people passing by while a cold breeze tainted their cheeks red.

"But she is an interesting girl", mentioned Benkei after a while and the Rumble King nodded in agreement. "She sure is; but what will happen next?"

"What do you mean?" Benkei turned her head towards Yoshitsune who looked up at the sky to follow another cloud of dense smoke that was slowly disappearing.

"Will that girl change something?" He thoughtfully mentioned while lowering his gaze towards the street without really looking at the gray asphalt. "She mentioned something that could affect lower-ranked members of the team."

"The sky can't be ruled by only one king? – So, you think that the legend of the one and only Sky King could fall apart?"

The rumble King shrugged again. "Just thinking."

An amused grin showed up on Benkei's lips and she took a deep breath of the cold air. "Well, let's see which direction the wind will blow and whose wings will be strong enough to take the upcoming storm head-on."

Yoshitsune emptied his cup of coffee and threw it into the garbage can next to him. "You're expecting a storm?"

"Don't you have a meeting at Tool Toul To's headquarter today?", The dark-haired woman responded with a smile on her lips which Yoshitsune couldn't read. But the Rumble King didn't care about it very long, he looked at his watch and raised his eyebrows. Then he took another drag from his cigarette and leaned back at the advertising pillar behind him. Benkei looked at him with a sceptical look in her eyes.

"You're already one hour late?", she mentioned with a low voice.

A cloud of dense smoke flew towards the sky and Yoshitsune simply nodded. Benkei grinned and shook her head then she took another sip of her coffee.

"Ine will kill you."

"Yeah, but only verbally."

"You're late."

"I know."

Ine felt like smashing that smile out of Yoshitsune's face, but she manged to control herself even the professional smile was back on her face when she took place behind her desk in her office. She took a deep breath and rubbed her closed eyes shortly.

"Okay, it has been three weeks since you received the temporary tuned regalia. Have there been any problems?"

Yoshitsune shook his head, but he was kinda irritated by the great relieve that lit up in the Pledge Queen's eyes for a few seconds. Then she had put the perfect mask of the Tool Toul To-leader back on her face. Cold and calculating.

"That's good to hear." The shining smile on her face made an even greater sceptism raise inside of the Rumble King's chest. Should have anything happened? Did someone forget a screw? "And I can also tell you that Yama has recovered from her illness . . . so, if you like to you may meet her today. I thought she'd be a good choose as your tuner-"

"What's with the other girl? That Azarni-kid."

The mask cracked, but it didn't break yet.

"W-why are you asking? Did something happen last time you met her?" Yoshitsune couldn't see how the pencil in Ine's right hand break because she had formed a very tight fist, but he could hear the wood breaking.

"Nothing happened . . . I just decided that I'd like her to become my tuner."

The mask broke. Ine sighed and gave up her professional smile. There were pain, sorrow and anger in her eyes. "You can't", she whispered, but Yoshitsune remained stubborn.

"Why not?"

"She will never accept to become your tuner."

"Why?"

Ine didn't answer and just kept focusing Yoshitsune with a very serious look in her eyes. But the Rumble King felt real anger burning up inside of him and he didn't even know why it was that way. It was a very rare case that he got angry that badly. The Pledge Queen obviously tried to hide something from him and he didn't feel like simply accepting this at all.

A silence began to grow between them filled with pure tension.

"Why?", Yoshitsune repeated the question angrily. Ine sighed and looked at the Rumble King with obvious annoyance in her eyes.

"She decided never to be a King's tuner ever again."

"What?" Surprise was spread across Yoshitsune's face while a bored smile was formed on Ine's lips. It always was the same with those young King's. They thought they'd understand everything in this world just because they've mastered the title of King. The Rumble King crossed his arms in front of his chest and seemed to think about something very hard. Then he took a deep breath and asked:

"Whose tuner has she been?"

"You've heard bout the Storm King who had died one year ago?"

"It can't be . . ."

Ine snorted.

The sound of a violin is a difficult one because you have to listen to it for quite a while to discover it's beauty.

Azarni knew this and it was actually the reason why she was drawn to that certain instrument since a very young age. She loved how she had to concentrate while playing because if she wasn't concentrated the tone would be too high-pitched and it'd be scratching in her ears. It was like the violin was talking to her and saying: "Hey! Pay attention to me!"

There had been many time after Mizuki's death when Azarni had thought about the reason why she had had become a tuner. Her mum had always yelled at her for spending too much time with him, but she had been happy. Maybe she had had feelings for that lively Storm King, but it had never mattered to her because the only reason she had had spent that much time with him was his sound. His bio-rhythm had been like the play of a violin and Azarni could have spent the rest of her life listening to his voice, to the beating of his heart, to his breathing.

"Mommy, look there's that girl again."

But one year ago that sound had stopped. She had closed the door of her room and instead of crying, screaming or furiously hating Sleeping Forest, she had had begun playing the violin. That day she was simply standing in the middle of her room and playing that instrument which Mizuki had loved so much. So many time he had dragged her to play for him and she had done so even before becoming the Storm King. If she'd ask herself seriously then she had to say that the moment when he gained the title of the Storm King, everything had started to crumble. She simply had been to intoxicated by his sound.

"Oh, maybe she'll be here everyday then from now on."

A little boy stepped forward and let a few coins fall down into the box which was standing in front of Azarni's feet. The boy looked up at her and smiled. But when the view of that little kid met with her eyes he only saw empty orbs. He stepped back and left, dragged away by his mother's hand.

People never stayed longer than a few seconds to listen to Azarni's playing. She was simply staying at this place in front of a museum every day when she could afford taking some free time. A cold breeze started blowing and Azarni took a deep breath of the cold, clear air. Suddenly the movements of her fingers started speeding up, she had to raise her concentration, every muscle of her body was keen. The bow seemed like he was hectically flying across the strings. It sounded like a soft breeze which suddenly turned into a furious storm. Azarni loved it, she loved how she could put all her strength into those fast melodies. There was no way that any human being would ever be able to let her feel the same pleasure by listening to his or her rhythm.

"Wow, nice performance."

A single man stopped in front of her and clapped applause. There was an honest smile on hiss face and the winter-sunlight liz up his almost snow-colored hair. (I know he's blonde, but to her it seems different at this moment) Azarni was still breathing heavily when she sceptically eyed that man who was simply wearing a chemise with weird colorful patterns on it.

"Aren't you freezing?", she asked bluntly, but the young man just shook his head.

"Nope, not at all. Are you worried?" Suddenly Azarni remembered that smile which seemed to be glued on his face. Wasn't that this Rumble King-guy?

"Just wondering", she responded while avoiding Yoshitsune's eyes. Ine must have told him where she was. _That snail-bitch really seemed to enjoy messing with her tuners privacy._

She took a look at her watch and decided to call it a day and get back home, otherwise her mum would be yelling at her again. (Please don't get this wrong, her mum is not a bad person, only a bit over-protective.)

"Would you play for me if I'd ask you?"

Azarni turned her head towards him and raised one eyebrow with a questioning look on her face. "Why should I do that?"

"Why are you playing out here on the street if you obviously don't care if there are people listening to you or not?"

She bit her lower lip in annoyance and narrowed her eyebrows. "Did I miss the part when it had become your business?", she shot back, but Yoshitsune wasn't affected by her anger at all. "Well, it will become my business when you've agreed to become my tuner."

"WHAT?"

Azarni was stunned with surprise and anger and she couldn't decide which emotion was stronger. On the one hand she wanted to know why that Rumble King wanted her to become her tuner though Ine must have told him about the fact that she had been the tuner of the King who had died. On the other had she was pissed at him for taking it as a matter of course that she'd gladly agree to become his tuner.

"I refuse."

He still smiled which made her realize that he had expected this to happened. But still he had been walking to her standing in front of this museum of which she didn't even know what was shown inside._ Why did he come though he already knew that she would refuse his "offer"? _

"Then tell me why you've decided to stay as a tuner after Mizuki's death?"

Now the smile was gone. Hearing the Storm King's voice spoken out loud felt like being pierced right through. Her hand grabbed the violin and the bow a bit more tightly.

"It's none of your business." She was proud of her voice staying strong though she didn't feel strong inside.

"There is no reason for you to stay if you refuse to tune a King."

Azarni swallowed hard. Yoshitsune's word were like millions of little needles piercing her heart. She didn't answer immediately._Why did I stay? Why did I become a tuner?_

Which answer have I given to Ine when she had asked me why I wanna become a member of Tool Toul To?

_I like music? – No._

_I wanna learn . . . did I wanna learn something? – No._

_I wanna reach a person's heart, I wanna make him shed tears of happiness, I wanna become the wings of someone who's important to me!_

She had seen storm rider several times back then and she had always wished to be able to put that smile of pure happiness on their faces. Then she had met Mizuki who smiled at her and had offered her a ride. _"Let me show you the sky."_

But that sparkle in his eyes had disappeared when he had become King. He had changed, but Azarni had refused to see it, to realize what'll happen sooner or later. And it had happened than she had aver imagined.

"He should have never become King", she whispered. "Such a title changes people and nobody recognizes that."

Yoshitsune listened to her were no tears in her eyes and no sobbing in her voice, but every word was spoken with pain. The pain of loosing someone important and also the pain of being responsible for it or at least being told so. Ine had been relieved that nothing had happened in the past weeks, but she hadn't been concerned because she didn't trust Azarni's abilities, no, she had been concerned because she had thought that Azarni would try to prevent Yoshitsune from becoming a real King by sabotaging the regalia. It was pretty difficult to control a tuners work on a regalia because the engineering was much more complex than normal ATs.

But Ine had given Azarni the job. Maybe she wanted to give her a chance and the moment Yoshitsune realized this detail he was absolutely determined to make this girl his tuner. So, he raised his view and looked straight into her eyes.

"If I fail as the Rumble King of the Over Road, you may kill me."

"ARE YOU KIDDING?", Azarni screamed out loud and she didn't give a damn about the people turning around with irritated looks on their faces.

Yoshitsune wasn't kidding, he was serious – dead serious. There were many tuners in Tool Toul To and he could have picked almost everyone of them, but he only wanted her to become his tuner because she wasn't one of those smiling, naive girls who would get seriously concerned every time he'd get scratched during a battle.

"I may seem like an idiot sometimes, but I've never regretted a single choice I've made."

An amused smile lit up Azarni's face and she slowly started playing on her violin again. She closed her eyes and sped up again, the bow was flying, her fingers were dancing and almost seemed to be obsessed by that sound. Maybe she was obsessed, maybe she was the devil between all naively smiling tuners. Maybe she was a demon disguised as a girl with dark-blond hair and turquoise highlights and maybe he was already brainwashed by her playing.

"I like it", he whispered.

_Standing on the street and playing the violin is the best possibility to find someone who loves those high-pitched, shaking tones, too._

Azarni opened her eyes again and it seemed like there was mysterious glowing inside of them. A malice smile was formed on her lips.

_Contract signed. No way back._

**Well, that's it. Please leave a review even if you didn't like it (but no flaming, please) ^^**

**See you next chapter! (hopefully. . .)**

**Bye FreakyPumpkin**


	17. Let's roll!

**Hey, everybody! ^^ YAY I'M BACK!**

**First of all, I wanna say that I am so VERY sorry for making you wait so long for the next chapter, but I had gotten ill pretty badly, then exams took every free minute and when holidays had started I was absolutely occupied with any kind of preparations (Christmas, New Year, . . . etc.) Oh my gosh, I think I've never been that busy during holiday every before. O.o**

**I'm begging you to forgive me. ú.ù But maybe you take this chapter and the next one, which should be finished soon as New Year's present. ^^ I hope I did meet your expectations . . . at least a little.**

Meg L.H: **thanks for your review, I'm glad you liked the last chapter and those "famous last words" will have a meaning in the further developement of the relationship between Yoshitsune and Azarni. And I'll never stop writing as long as there is at least one person reading and reviewing it. ^^  
**

**Well, let's get back to Phoenix and Spitfire! Enjoy reading! X3  
**

Chapter sixteen: Let''s roll!

One afternoon when Spitfire was still at work Phoenix spotted a closed door of which she hadn't been aware of before. It was hidden by the Flame King's massive wardrobe, so it was difficult to spot it from the doorway. He even had covered it with a picture. The picture was the only one in the apartment so Phoenix should have noticed it earlier, but she had never payed that much attention to the furniture of this apartment. _Why is that door hidden in such an complex way?_, she wondered and careful let her fingertips run over the dried color of the picture. It was drawn with acrylic color and it showed a black piano standing in an empty room with a great windows. The sunlight was shining through the windows and they let the black lacquer of the piano glow.

"What a great piece of work", she whispered in awe, but then she got reminded of the door behind the painting again. Slowly she put her hand down on the doorknob. The metal felt cold beneath the palm of her hand. _I guess, the door is locked when he already put that much effort into hiding it_, but surprisingly the doorknob gave in after Phoenix used a little force and the door opened up. Phoenix' hold her breath out of surprise and she felt her body trembling with every heartbeat.

A cool breeze was floating out of that hidden room, then it blew back into the room and it tickled on Phoenix' skin. _Almost like the room wants me to enter . . ._

(Do you know the movie 'Spirited away'? Just imagine it the same way as Chihiro was "pulled" into that tunel in the beginning.)

Carefully Phoenix peeked into the room. It was empty . . . there were no carpet lying on the floor like in the big living-room, no curtains concealed the two windows. One was opened which was the reason for the cool breeze earlier. Rays of sunlight were shining through the windows and made the black lacquer of an old piano glow. It stood in the middle of the room and seemed to be longing for someone to play it.

"Wow . . .", Phoenix whispered. "Just like on the picture."

The room calmed her nerves almost instantly as she took the first step forward. Her bare feet carefully touched the polished parquet while her eyes were completely focused on the instrument standing in the middle of the room. Phoenix creeped further into the room and respectfully approached the piano. It seemed like it was sleeping and she didn't want to wake it up. But she couldn't hold herself back from touching the shining black laquer. Her fingertips stroked across the wood covered by deep black color. Again a cold breeze tickled her skin and a little smile appeared on her lips.

"You gotta be very lonely, hm?" Her fingertips came to rest on the white- and black-colored keyboard. She used a little force and a single, clear tone was floating through the empty room. "He took good care of it", Phoenix mumbled to herself. She let her fingers wander over the keyboard and more and more tones were flying through the air, they filled up the emptiness of the hidden room and suddenly Phoenix understood why the were no furniture in this room because if they were there wouldn't be any room for the countless melodies which could be played on the piano. Maybe Spitfire hadn't done this on purpose, but it didn't matter if he had done it on purpose or not; all that Phoenix needed to know was that Spitfire knew that this room wouldn't need anything else than this piano to be perfect. Suddenly the door of the apartment opened up and Spitfire's voice got mixed in with the simple melody of the piano.

"I'm back!"

Phoenix realized what she was doing and that she had had invaded his privacy without asking – Spitfire wouldn't have hidden the piano that way if it was nothing special. Panic made her heart beating faster and as fast as she could she left the room, closed the door and hurried back into the living room where she had been sitting before.

"H-hey, Spitfire, I w-wouldn't have expected you to return so early", she stuttered nervously while swallowing hard and scratching the back of her head. A nervous laugh escaped her lips and she had the feeling that her heart would jump right out of her chest any moment. Spitfire looked at her with a puzzled look on his face, but then simply shrugged and said:

"Well, I asked my boss to give me the afternoon off."

"Oh, okay."

A short silence grew between them till finally a question shot through Phoenix' mind. "Why did you do that? You're always working all day long . . .", she wondered, but the Flame King just looked down at her with an honest smile lighting up his face and making his eyes shining warmly. "I wanted to spend the afternoon with a charming young lady."

Phoenix' eyes widened and pure horror darkened her red orbs. "You're dating Simca?"

Spitfire broke into laughter and pulled Phoenix into a friendly embrace. "No, my little Phoenix, I'm not dating Simca." One of his hands stroked the girl's back who felt really puzzled right now.

"So . . . it's not that Pinky." She couldn't see his face, but she could feel him nodding. "Who do you wanna spend the afternoon with?"

Spitfire tightened the embrace a little and whispered: "I wanted to go a little shopping with you." Phoenix felt her face burning immediately as she realized that he was talking about her as he had said _charming, young lady_. "M-me?", she stuttered and Spitfire pulled away from her. He placed his hands on the girl's shoulders and looked at her closely. "Is there something wrong with it?"

Phoenix shook her head furiously and yelled at herself quietly for going crazy over something stupid like this. "N-no, not at all." She took a deep breath and looked straight back into Spitfire's eyes. "Where do you wanna take me? Please no more shopping for clothes."

The Flame King grinned broadly and slightly ruffled the dark-red hair of his little flat mate. "Nah, don't worry, no clothes . . . but I won't tell you were we will go, it's a surprise."

Sceptically the girl eyed the older man in front of her which made him chuckle, but he didn't spill a word about the details of his plan.

"Just get your jacket and shoes", he mentioned and Phoenix ran off into the guest room which had been turned into _Phoenix' room_ after the first week she had stayed with the Flame King. She took her jacket and picked up the shoes from the floor. As she passed the door to Spitfire's room she had already forgotten about the hidden piano and that beautiful painting, but the melody of the pure tones which were dancing through the emptiness of that hidden room was still playing and vibrating in her subconcious mind.

A part of her long forgotten past began to breath again, so she didn't recognize the serious and slightly worried look on Spitfire's face when he closed the door of his apartment behind them.

The first snow had fallen during the last night. The city was covered with a white powder everywhere and Phoenix was absolutely fascinated by the creaking sound which the snow made when she stepped on it. She always had to pay attention on where Spitfire was going to not loose him within the crowd of people who were moving towards every direction. They had entered a pedestrian zone when Phoenix caught up with the Flame King again, she grabbed his hand while taking a closer look at all the different people there. But it simply felt the same like back in the salon where Spitfire was working. Nobody looked like her, not even closely; there was no second pair of piercing red orbs, no second strand of flaming-red hair appearing under the border of a cap. Phoenix sighed. _I'm different from everyone else. _

"_Being different is nothing bad, Phoenix."_ There was a pure and honest voice in her head. She could see the cloudy image of a boy with brown hair in her mind. She could hear him softly laughing. _"Being like everyone else is boring."_ Her heart suddenly started beating faster as she recognized someone standing on the other side of the pedestrian zone who was looking at her. There was a boy standing in the middle of the moving crowd, but he didn't move an inch. He seemed to look straight into her eyes though there were a distance of more than fifty meters between them. A soft breeze moved the dark-brown strand which had covered the right half of the boy's face. Two scars ran parallel across his right eye, two scars which Phoenix had seen so many times, two scars which she had thought she would never be able to touch again.

Spitfire looked down at Phoenix with confusion in his eyes as the girl suddenly stopped and stared off at some point on the other side of the pedestrian zone. Then she suddenly let go of his hand and started running through the crowd.

"Phoenix?", he called out, but she didn't seem to hear him or to even recognize him being there anymore. She made her way through the crowd by hustling other people out of her way, obstinately moving forward.

"_There's nothing wrong with your hair. It makes you special, Phoenix."_ There was that voice again inside of her head and she knew who it belonged to. But she couldn't make herself calling out that name. Millions of unshed tears blocked her throat._ Falk._ The boy saw her moving towards him, he could see the desperate but still so very hopeful look in her eyes. He had been smiling before, but now that smile was fading. She couldn't make herself call out for him.

Phoenix ran into a big man who was wearing a suit and who was looking down at the little girl who was sitting on the dirty ground in front of his eyes. He noticed that she was out of breath, he noticed the desperate look in her eyes, he noticed the glancing tears in her eyes and he took a step away from her to move on towards wherever he wanted to go. As fast as she could Phoenix got back on her feet and looked at the place where the boy had been standing and which was only two meters away now. But he was gone. Her throat was burning with every breath of the cold winter air she took. Gone . . . the tears dried at the edges of her eyes, not a single one made her way down Phoenix' cheeks.

She was so stupid. Falk was dead. He had died two years ago due to a terrible accident. It had only been a hallucination.

_Dead birds don't fly._

Phoenix felt a hand on the top of her head. "Is everything okay?", a soft voice asked and it kinda tickled in her ears. She smiled and it felt like the most painful thing she'd ever done.

"Everything's fine."

Spitfire knew that she lied, but he also knew that she wouldn't tell him anything if he'd ask right now. But after a while he kneeled down in front of her and forced her to look at him. He placed one hand on her cold cheek and said with a very serious expression on his face:

"There's no sense in smiling if you don't feel like doing so."

Then he stood up again and offered the surprised girl his hand, she grabbed it and they continued walking, away from the spot where the brown-haired boy had been standing and away from the rooftop where a falcon was sitting and sceptically eyeing the back of Spitfire's head.

"_Crying is a way to get rid of hatred, desperation and sorrow, Phoenix. Did you know that?" _

It was a little shop with a green neon-sign over the entrance-door. The great place in front of the shop was occupied with kids who were trying out jumps and other tricks on their ATs.

"Here we are", Spitfire mentioned and kinda felt a little uneasy because Phoenix was staring at the glowing green sign with dull eyes. After a while he sighed and kneeled down next to Phenix once again. "It's an offer which you don't have to accept . . . I won't throw you out or something like that, if you decline it. I just want you to know that if you wanna learn how to ride ATs I'd feel glad to be your teacher."

Phoenix looked away thoughtfully. She watched the kids at the place with a fountain in the middle of it. There was a boy with short black hair who was racing towards the fountain, but just before he was in verge of colliding with the stone-border he jumped off the ground, turned around in the air, doing a backflip over the glittering water-fountain. After that he safely landed on his feet again and as he rose his arms into the air, his friends who had stayed on the other site on the fountain started to scream in excitement. The boy also let an excited "YEAH!" escape his lips. He skated back to his friends and another boy with a dark-blue cap showed his friends how he had flown over the fountain with his hands. Phoenix' eyes got caught by the eyes of the boy which were shining and sparkling like clear-blue ice on a cold winter morning that was reflecting the golden shining of the sunlight. His smile, his laughter and his joy were so honest that it broke Phoenix' heart. She envied him.

A sad smile was formed on her lips as she turned her face back to Spitfire. "Those Air-Trecks can't lift the heavy chains on my wings and they can't lift me up in the sky again like I've been flying before . . . but maybe they can help me to get my smile back", she whispered and took a step towards the entrance-door. A little bell jingled when it was opened and it ringed again when the door was closed behind Spitfire who felt deeply relieved without exactly knowing why.

+#+#+#+#+#+#+

_The falcon decided to stay with the Phoenix down on earth as long as it would take for the phoenix' broken wing to heal. The wing healed again, but the falcon realized too late that the phoenix' real pain wasn't because of his broken wing but because of his broken heart. _

_The sky had abandoned him and there was no way back._

+#+#+#+#+#+#+

"Okay, now use a little bit more force."

She did as he had told her and almost immediately the wheel were turning and Phoenix slowly rolled forward. Then she stopped and hold her breath for a short moment till she was sure that she had used the breaks right. Phoenix looked at Spitfire who was sitting on a bench nearby taking a bottle of mineral water out of the backpack they had brought with them.

"Now come over here", the Flame King ordered while waving with the bottle of water and grinning amused. It really was already great fun to teach Phoenix how to ride ATs because she was very eager to learn as much as she could about riding. There even appeared little wrinkles on her forehead as she focused her whole concentration on rolling forwards. For her it was mostly like a holy mission which was exactly the reason why Spitfire enjoyed their training-sessions so much. She took the riding very serious; it wasn't just a hobby to her.

"Does your knee still hurt?", he asked as Phoenix took place on the bench next to him while handing over the bottle of water. The girl gulped down the water hastily, but she managed to shake her head while drinking which made the Flame King smiling. "That's good to hear."

Phoenix stopped drinking and returned the bottle to Spitfire who looked at the once full bottle which was now almost empty.

"I'm absolutely fine", stated Phoenix, then she stood up again and slowly rolled over to her practice place again. They had decided to train next to an abandoned playground. There was a giant chess-field engraved into the ground and Phoenix moved from a black area to a white one and back again. Then she started rolling across the white areas in diagonal lines across the whole playing field. After every line she stopped and turned into another direction. Actually she was doing a pretty good job and Spitfire even was afraid to say something which could disturb her concentration. Phoenix was staring straight at the ground and was so very focused on moving forward that she didn't recognize a pink-haired girl approaching them. She stopped again, turned around and rolled back to the point where she had started from.

"Nice turn."

Phoenix almost lost her balance as suddenly a well-known voice sounded next to her ear, but she managed not to fall flat on the ground. "Thanks", she responded with a cold voice, but Simca didn't seem to be affected by the younger girl's mood at all. The annoying smile simply stayed on her face as if it was glued on it. Phoenix sighed.

"What do you want, Pinky?"

"I was interested how a little shopping-maniac would be doing on rolls without any hanging clothes to grab on."

The two girls were smiling at each other and to an outstanding person it would seem like to best friends talking to each other, but to Spitfire it seemed more like an upcoming thunder storm. So, before they could kill each other by staring each other to death, the Flame King interfered and greeted Simca with a simple "Hi". At least it was enough to prevent a bloody catastrophe from happening.

"Hey, Spitfire, how is it going?" He knew that innocent smile too well to fall for it. Meeting Simca was never a coincidence. She had seen the tattoo on Phoenix' back, she knew that the girl wasn't a normal kid at all . . . all the Flame King could hope for was that Nue hadn't told her any details about _Sleeping Hollow_. He could see that flickering greed in her deep, gray eyes. _She is no average teenage girl._

Simca's plan of collecting the eight Kings was no secret and Spitfire would bet his last shirt that she already saw a new queen rising within the red-haired girl standing on the giant chess-field. The only thing that was irritating was the feeling that Phoenix had no anticipation to become Queen.

"Oh, it's working out quite nicely . . . as you can see, she's already picking up some speed." The Flame King had to try very hard not to let his fear of an upcoming argument about talent in riding and other stuff, shown. He succeeded in not letting a nervous laugh escape his lips and he was very proud of the fact that he stayed calm – on the outside. But he could almost feel Phoenix' piercing look burning a hole into his neck when he tried separating the two girls from each other by stepping between them.

"Have you heard anything from Yoshitsune? I think he was about to get a personal tuner the last time we met." Simca laughed and Spitire thanked God that he had succeeded in distracting her from judging Phoenix' riding-skills.

"Oh, yeah . . . he's got a personal tuner for about one week now, I think. Benkei mentioned that she's a pretty tough girl."

"Well, it would be no fun for the Rumble King if he hadn't had a _game_ to win. Even if his enemy should be his most important supporter." Spitfire shrugged and felt that the grin on his face became more natural and therefore easier to keep it on his face. Simca chuckled slightly and nodded in agreement.

"What's a _tuner_, Spitfire?" The Flame King felt a hand gently pulling his right sleeve and and recognized a whispered question reaching his ear. Phoenix seemed to try not to let Simca know what she was aasking. But the pink-haired teen proofed once more that she could be worse than ATs without rolls. "Oh, don't you know that, little shopping-maniac? Even though your living together with a King?" A sugary smile was resting on her lips while Phoenix looked like she was about to strangle the other girl – not caring about any bloody consequences.

"Are you doing that on purpose?", the red-haired girl wanted to know with a monotone voice.

"Of course." The smile grow even wider. Spitfire sighed and turned towards Simca: "You could have at least tried to say _no_." But she only crossed her arms in front of her chest and mentioned: "She was the one who started it."

Phoenix opened her mouth, but she was silenced by Spitfire's look before she could spit out some curses which she had learned from watching TV. "I'd like to continue the training, Simca", the Flame King said and made her understand that he wanted her to go. She simply shrugged and disappeared; as she was gone Phoenix muttered something which sounded pretty much like "Damn bitch" and Spitfire wondered if he should start controlling what his younger flat mate was watching on TV while he was working in the salon. _Maybe I should get her a job . . . _then he thought of the possibility that Simca would stop by to tease Phoenix and he strongly shook his head. No, he liked the idea of her watching weird TV-shows while he wasn't around better then her arguing with a certain swallow in public.

"Thinking of something bad again?"

Spitfire looked down at Phoenix who seemed to be honestly worried about him shaking his head that furiously. He almost broke into laughter, but he could hold it back and simply patted the younger girl's head. "You may call it _something bad_, I guess."

He walked over to the bench where he had been sitting before. Phoenix followed him by slowly rolling over.

"So, what is a tuner?" She looked at the Flame King with big round eyes which were filled with pure curiosity.

"Hm . . . " Spitfire thought about how he could explain the meaning of a tuner without giving her a wrong idea about it. "Tuners are kinda the mechanics in the world of ATs. They are specialized on repairing or even constructing them."

Phoenix nodded calmly, but she didn't seem to completely understand the special meaning of tuners. "Kay . . ."

"They are also the ones who are supporting the Kings of the eight roads because their ATs have special parts in it which are called the Regalia. These parts have to be kinda synchronized in an optima way with the King's biorhythm." As he looked up at Phoenix he saw a great question mark appearing over her head.

"You lost me there . . .", she admitted.

"Doesn't matter . . . uhm, let's start from a different point. Everybody does have a different heartbeat; it's beating with a different rhythm-"

"Oh, I do understand that one." Phoenix' eyes began to shine. "it's the greatest thing on earth to listen to a melodic heartbeat – it is mostly the one of a woman."

Spitfire grinned. "Yeah, maybe that's th reason why there are almost only female tuners."

"Oh, there are?"

The Flame King nodded and continued talking. "But let's move a little further . . . the better rider you are the more effectively you can make use of every part of your ATs. And for the Kings of the different roads it is necessary that their ATs consist of the best parts you can find."

Phoenix nodded and this time she knew what he was talking about. "And the tuners have to take care of the fact that the heartbeat of these Regalia-parts are exactly synchronized with the one of the King?" Spitfire was just about to explain that part, but he stopped with a surprised look in his eyes. "How did you know that?"

Phoenix grinned. "Well, everything has a heartbeat and if two things have to work together they can only succeed when their hearts are beating as one." Spitfire shook his head in disbelief, but then a grin started appearing on his face. This girl really was something special and he kind wondered what it would be like to listen to her heartbeat.

"You're heartbeat is actually a very melodic one, too." Phoenix slightly blushed and was smiling shyly at Spitfire whose eyes had gotten round and big out of confusion. "You-you can hear that?", he asked carefully and the red-haired girl in front of him simply nodded. It seemed to be the most normal thing in the world. But after a short while Phoenix seemed to recognize that Spitfire didn't have the same opinion.

"Is there something wro-" She stopped in the middle of the question and started to suspiciously eyeing their surrounding. Spitfire also realized that the number of the people walking by had increased drastically . . . and the people came back after passing the abandoned playground once. Then he caught sight of a member of his own team which was part of the great organism of Genesis and understood that all those people were rider who tried to get known something of the skills of their newest member. (They considered Phoenix as member of their team – of Genesis, in general – even though she had never spoken any words of accepting the offered membership.)

Well, Phoenix didn't seem to see through the situation that fast.

"I think we are being watched", she whispered without turning her view off the passing people. The dead-serious look on her face made Spitfire chuckle. Phoenix looked at him and pure confusion took control of her dark-red orbs. "I'm serious, Spitfire", she told him and almost seemed to be offended by his reaction and slightly worried.

"I know", the Flame King answered still chuckling, "but they're members of Genesis . . . so, you don't have to be scared of them."

"I'm not scared!" Now he was sure that she was offended, but she wasn't seriously mad at him. "I'm simply careful and just because they're members of Genesis it doesn't mean that they're harmless; just look at Simca – and she is the _leader_ of this team."

Suddenly one of the riders – who became more and more every minute – finally took some courage and walked over to Phoenix and Spitfire and greeted them shyly.

"H-hey, Simca told me that you were training out here . . . and I wanted to ask if I might join you", he explained hastily. He was a young man, with shoulder-length, brown hair and a bag hanging down from his left hand. Spitire was very sure that he had carried his ATs within that bag.

"Simca told you?" Phoenix gave him a piercing look which made him slightly shiver, but Spitfire managed to prevent another misunderstanding from happening by grabbing onto Phoenix' orange-colored shirt. He pulled her back a little and then turned towards the brown-haired rider. "Sure . . . no problem, maybe you can help the young lady here to pick up some speed." The young man seemed to be very happy about this offer and grinned broadly at Phoenix who was still staring at him like some kind of high-ranked criminal who wanted to kidnap her.

"I'm Masato . . . nice to meet you, young lady." He reached out his hand, but said _young lady_ didn't make any attempt to copy the gesture. "So, Simca told you to come? Are you good friends with Simca?", she wanted to know instead with a suspicious voice and narrowed eyes. "Uhm . . ." Masato gulped; he didn't know how to react because he was kinda scared that Phoenix would hate him for the rest of his life if he'd say he was good friends with Simca. At least he could be sure that the rumors which were going around since the last meeting that the new girl wasn't Simca's greatest fan, were true.

"Uhm . . . I don't hate her, but I think she's a bit too pink . . . sometimes."

Phoenix' eyes began to shine, she grabbed Masato's hand and started shaking it enthusiastically while Masato wondered if he should have stayed in bed this mornig.

"Let's get back to training", the red-haired girl announced and rolled over to the giant chess-field while Masato took place next to Spitfire on the bench to put on his ATs. "Better not mention Simca in any way if you wanna get along with her", Spitfire whispered with an encouraging smile on his face. Masato returned the smile and nodded as a sign of understanding. Then he stood up and followed Phoenix onto the chess-field.

Encouraged by Masato's success the other riders also approached the playground and the giant chess-field. It didn't take long for them to figure out who could teach Phoenix the most about holding one's balance, picking up speed, controlling the movements, doing simple tricks . . . etc. She learned how

Spitfire was sitting on the bench and almost couldn't believe what was going on right in front of his eyes. But actually he was pretty happy about it because of that smile which seemed to be glued on Phoenix' face and the shining glance in her eyes.

Phoenix had no idea why she was smiling all the time, she didn't know why her heart was pounding so fast and she really wondered why the hell she felt so very comfortable while being surrounded by all these people. Everybody just seemed to be so very excited about riding that she wanted to experience this feeling, too – as soon as possible. She wanted to become a part of this happy honestly smiling group.

Even Nue and his teammates paid a visit and soon Phoenix was playing tag with the children who were still wearing their white cloaks and their weird masks. She picked up speed while playing around and she almost instinctively she shifted her weight towards the right direction. She wasn't that focused on riding anymore and suddenly her movements became much more swiftly than before.

"So you decided to teach her?"

"She did it on her own."

Nue eyed Spitfire out of the corner of his eye and snorted which made the Flame King grin.

"What's wrong, Nue? Do you really dislike her that much?"

The Thunder King sighed and took place on the bench next to Spitfire. He leaned his head back, so he was able to look straight at the sky which was of a shining light-blue this day.

"It's not that I can't stand her . . . I simply have a bad feeling about this", he mumbled. An annoyed sigh escaped Spitfire's lips. "Oh, just a few weeks ago you told me that I shouldn't try prevent her from getting involved with the world of ATs-"

"No, I've told you that the Japanese world of ATs isn't a playground for kids."

"She's no little kid . . . and you're still not the one to talk."

Nue heavily sighed. "Whatever."

Anger was boiling up inside of Spitfire and he glared at Nue, but then he reminded himself of the fact that he only knew half of Phoenix' past. He had no idea that her heart was the one of a bird which didn't desire anything more than getting closer to the sky even if it was only for one little moment. He sighed again and followed his friends movement by looking straight at the sky.

"Nobody can say where the wind will take us next and we'll never get to know it if we don't let him take us with him."

A smile was formed on Nue's lips and he took a closer look at Phoenix who just tried to escape from Mizuki, a girl of the Thunder King's team with piercing blue eyes. He saw the little girl's smile and remembered how she hadn't been smiling even one for the past three days because her parents had gotten into divorce. Somehow that Phoenix-kid had managed to get the smile back on Mizuki's face – just like a fire which was warming the air around it.

"You think that she's the wind we've been waiting for?", Nue asked with an absent-minded look on his face, but Spitfire shook his head.

"No, that's not what I think, but I'm pretty sure that she is the breeze which will warm up our frozen wings. We've just spent too much time with waiting for the Sky King by now, that we've almost forgot how to breath freely."

Nue turned his head towards the Flame King with a puzzled look in his eyes, but the older man just grinned broadly at the the younger boy.

"It is said that having fun once in a while shall be pretty healthy."

The Thunder King snorted, but a little, honest smile was already appearing on his lips. "Yeah, maybe you are ri-" The smile only lasted till a snowball hit him straight on his head. The riders of Genesis had started a snowball-fight, but now everyone was frozen and straight looking at Nue. Well, almost everyone was looking at him, except of Phoenix and Mizuki. Phoenix was irritated looking at her hand like she was missing something which had been there just a few moments ago (like a snowball, that had been thrown at a certain Thunder King due to an uncontrolled movement when she had almost lost her balance on the snow). Mizuki was sitting on the ground and she almost couldn't breath because she was laughing too hard.

"Seems more like an uncontrolled tornado . . .", Nue mumbled with a pissed off look on his face while snow was melting in his hair and little pieces of ice were running down his face.

+#+#+#+#+#+#+

_As time went by the phoenix began to forget about the bird's heart beating in his chest. He began to get used to the heavy chains which were pinning his wings to the earth and he began to forget about the falcon who never stopped watching over him. The phoenix began to turn into a human child . . . but only till he felt the wind stroking the feathers of his wings again. _

+#+#+#+#+#+#+

**That's it for this chapter ^^ I hope you liked it. If you didn't: feel free to tell me because I can only get better if you tell me what you disliked. X3**

**If there are any questions feel free to ask me and if you would like me to add something in the upcoming chapters of this fanfiction, tell me! ^^**

**But I also have to make an announcement - or something like that: *clearing throat***

**The next chapter will be the last one of "Footprints in the Sand", but Phoenix' story is far from being finished, don't worry. ^^ I'll start writing another fanfiction, a continuation of FitS. I'm not sure about the title yet, but i'm sure you'll see it, when it's getting uploaded. There will be a leap in time of about two or three years and Phoenix will finally meet Ikki and his gang. ^^**

**Well, see you at the next chapter! ^^**

**Bye FreakyPumpkin**_  
_


	18. Footprints in the Sand

Chapter seventeen: Footprints in the Sand

_You walked with me,  
Footprints in the sand,  
And helped me understand,  
Where I'm going,_

"What a nice song."

"Indeed . . ."

"How about we'll make it _our_ song?"

"Why that?"

"Let's take it as a promise that we'll never leave each other alone."

Spitfire chuckled and softy ruffled Phoenix' girl grinned broadly and finally Spitfire nodded.

"Kay, let's make it our song."

_You walked with me,  
When I was all alone,  
With so much unknown,  
Along the way,  
Then I heard you say_

"I promise to come and embrace you when you're sad."

"I promise to be there any time when you're hurt."

_I promise you,  
I'm always there,  
When your heart is filled with sorrow,  
And despair, I'll carry you  
When you need a friend  
You'll find my footprints in the sand_

"I promise to watch over you any time no matter where you are."

"I promise to fight with you whenever you need help."

_I see my life flash across the sky,  
So many times have I been so afraid.  
And just when I, I thought I lost my way,  
You gave me strength to carry on,  
That's when I heard you say_

"I promise to always listen to your worries."

"I promise to never tell a secret you entrusted with me."

_I promise you  
I'm always there  
When your heart is filled  
With sorrow and despair  
Oh, I'll carry you  
When you need a friend  
You'll find my footprints in the sand._

"I promise to always be honest with you."

"I promise to never lie to you."

_When I'm with you,  
Well I know you've been there,  
And I can feel you when you say,_

"I promise to never make you cry."

"I promise to never make you cry."

_I promise you  
I'm always there  
When your heart is filled  
With sadness and despair  
I'll carry you when you need a friend  
You'll find my footprints in the sand._

"I promise to never betray you!"

"I promise to never betray you!"

_When your heart is full with  
Sadness and despair,  
I'll carry you when you need a friend  
You'll find my footprints in the sand._

"I like you, Spitfire."

"I like you too, Phoenix."

He swear to himself in silence that he'll never let this smile fade from her face, but he had no idea how the upcoming storm would blow those innocent memories away.

**I really wanna thank everybody who has read this fanfiction till the end. It is the first one I've ever finished (though the story itself isn't finished by now) and I hope you enjoyed it as much as i did while writing it.**

**I will be on vacation for the next week, so I won't update anything before the next weekend. I'll try my best to begin writing the continuation of "Footprints in the Sand" the next week and I hope I may welcome all of you readers back again, when the first chapter of "One Girl Revolution" will be upped. ^^ **

**Till then, your FreakyPumpkin :o)**

**P.S.: The lyrics belong to Leona Lewis. NOT MINE!**


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